


The Wavering Peahen

by quicksilversquared



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Gen, and those terrible decisions coming back around to bite them in the butt, terrible people making terrible decisions, terrible supervillain ethics
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-01
Updated: 2020-12-15
Packaged: 2021-03-06 16:28:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 33,570
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26241928
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/quicksilversquared/pseuds/quicksilversquared
Summary: When Nathalie started feeling oddly ill again, both she and Gabriel were worried that the Peacock Miraculous might somehow (impossibly) be to blame again.So naturally, they pick someone else to be the Peacock for a bit. You know, as a test subject. Except the new Peacock... doesn't exactly know that.
Comments: 192
Kudos: 510





	1. Gabriel

Ever since Miracle Queen's akumatization, Gabriel Agreste had been feeling pretty optimistic about his now-improved chances of defeating the superheroes. While he had lost the box of Miraculous because of his poorly-thought-through gamble with Miracle Queen, he had made other gains.

He knew who Ladybug's backup teammates had been, and could use that against them should they show up again. He had gotten the digital copy of the Grimoire, which was- well, maybe it was only _partially_ translated, and some things still seemed to be in code, but it had some pretty interesting information in it, like what powers the other Miraculous- the ones that he _hadn't_ seen in action yet- had. And best of all, because of the Grimoire, he had gotten the Peacock Miraculous fixed and now Nathalie could join him on a _much_ more regular basis without putting her own health at risk. He had figured that that should be enough for them to secure a victory within a week, or at most a month, if things went really badly.

It had been _five months_ and the superheroes weren't giving any ground, standing solid as they fought akumas and sentimonsters alike. It. Was. _Infuriating_. And for a man like Gabriel, who wasn't particularly patient to start with...

Well, some days it felt like anything could set him off. They should have _won_ by now, darn it. They were two adults up against two _kids_. Getting their Miraculous should have been like taking candy from a baby... and yet it wasn't.

Across the room, Nathalie coughed, pulling his attention away from the grimoire and the hints for the potion ingredients that _still_ seemed to be listed in some sort of ridiculous code. Gabriel glanced over at her, and Nathalie gave him an apologetic grimace before returning to her work.

She had had this _dratted_ cold for at least two months now, and _no_ , it wasn't just him exaggerating out of annoyance. It had started small- just a small cough here and there and the occasional sneeze, or the need for her to finish a day early because she wasn't feeling well- and gotten gradually worse. He had hoped that she might have recovered at least a bit over the weekend, but instead she had come to work looking _substantially_ worse than before.

While he had tolerated her coughing before- after all, she _was_ helping him out with his mission and previously getting sick because of it- coughing from a common cold was simply _annoying_. It was grating and disruptive and kept pulling him out of his concentration. He hadn't _said_ anything about it yet, of course- it was not, after all, Nathalie's fault, she didn't _want_ to be sick- but it was annoying nonetheless.

Gabriel reached across the desk for his phone and ordered a large ginger-honey tea and a bag of cough drops for Nathalie. Maybe that would help quell her coughing.

_Now, back to the grimoire... what on earth could they mean by tears of joy...?_

Seven minutes later, the tea and cough drops arrived and were promptly delivered to Nathalie's desk. She murmured a quiet _thank you._ The chef nodded, then retreated from the room at once. As soon as the office door swung shut behind him, Gabriel could feel Nathalie's gaze slide to him.

"I take it you're annoyed by my coughing, sir?"

"It _is_ a bit disruptive, you have to admit," Gabriel told her, finally deciding to put a flag on the potion ingredients section (really, he could only puzzle out about half of them, it was _ridiculous_ and Nooroo apparently had no idea what the infernal clues were referring to either) and move on. He was _severely_ behind on his design work, so perhaps he would do that for a while. "So I came up with a potential solution for it. Is that a problem?"

"No." Nathalie considered her tea, then took a small sip and made a face. "Though I might have preferred to order my own tea. This one...is not a favorite of mine."

"It is what many people recommend online for a sore throat. I thought it would be best, considering how long this cough seems to be lingering."

Nathalie opened her mouth like she was going to comment on that, then clearly decided against it. A moment later, she smothered a yawn. "I suppose that makes sense."

Gabriel frowned. "Is your cold _still_ not getting any better? It's been months."

"Not particularly. I haven't been congested, which is a relief. But-" She yawned widely again, then frowned. "And I've been sleeping fine! I don't know what the issue is."

"Well, maybe you should finish what you're doing and then take off for the day," Gabriel suggested, both because he was tired of the coughing and, well, if Nathalie was feeling poorly and coughing that much, then the smart thing for her to do would be to go home and _not_ infect the rest of the house. If that was even possible, considering how long she had been feeling under the weather. "Get some rest, and come back when you're feeling better."

"And if there's an akuma attack?" Nathalie asked, straightening and frowning at him. "I don't want to be the reason you miss out on winning, simply because there wasn't a sentimonster there to assist."

"If you're awake and able to take a break to help from home, then that would be much appreciated," Gabriel decided after a moment's consideration. "Thank you."

"Of course, sir." Nathalie glanced back at her screen, did a few quick clicks, and then downed her entire cup of tea in one go. "I've come to a decent stopping point. Anything else can be finished at home."

"You're meant to be resting," Gabriel reminded her. "The work can wait. And the company _does_ have plenty of secretaries, we can always assign some of your work to them. Actually- yes, if you're feeling up to it, it would be nice to get a list of what can be done by others. Then I can reassign those things right away and get them checked off before we get too far behind."

"I'll have an initial list done by the evening." Nathalie did a couple more clicks, then shut her computer and started gathering up her things. "Text me if you're going to akumatize someone, and what their powers are going to be. Then I can come up with a complimentary sentimonster. I can set up an alert on my phone so I won't miss it."

"Thank you." Gabriel watched as Nathalie packed up her computer, then rose to open the door for her. "Keep me updated on how you're feeling, okay? And don't push yourself _too_ hard to come back early. You do better work when you're not ill."

"Of course." Nathalie nodded to him, then headed out the door. Gabriel watched her go for a moment, then turned and headed back to his work.

Maybe he really _should_ spend the rest of the day focusing on his designing. After all, if Nathalie was sick, it was probably only a matter of time before he got ill as well. And Gabriel no longer designed when he was unwell, for- well, for a multitude of reasons.

(He had only _just_ managed to get fully out from the shadow of the infamous Cold Medicine Dress of '02 recently. Misstepping and having a repeat of that particular incident would _not_ reflect well on the company.)

Actually, now that he was thinking about it, it was better to be safe than sorry. Reaching for his phone again, Gabriel ordered an array of multivitamins for himself, plus a bottle of hand sanitizer for his desk. He also requested that the maid to come in early and wipe down Nathalie's work area, just in case.

Some might call it overkill. Gabriel was simply of the opinion that it was better to be proactive than reactive.

* * *

Five days later, and Nathalie was still feeling under the weather. She had even fainted later in the week, she admitted to Gabriel when he called to check in on her. And she _swore_ that she had been resting properly and getting plenty of sleep.

"It's been _really_ odd," she told him two days later, after dropping into the mansion to collect a few more things to work on from home. "I've not been congested or had a runny nose at all, and that- that's a hallmark of cold and flus, right? And there's not been a fever at all." She frowned, clearly reluctant to continue, but she forged on anyway. "It almost feels like- like a slow onset of- no, that can't be it. It's impossible, I shouldn't even think about it."

Gabriel frowned for a moment, about to snap at her to just _spit it out_ , and then it hit him like a train. Tiredness, weakness, fainting, feeling sick but not congested or snotty at all- those were all things that they had seen before.

_Like a slow onset of using the Peacock when it was broken._

He wouldn't want to say that out loud, either. That sort of possibility...

_But he had fixed it!_

"Nathalie, do you think..." Gabriel started, then trailed off, entirely unsure of what he wanted to say. The Peacock causing the problems _should_ have been an impossibility, but- well, how were they meant to test that? Because they _had_ to test it, before Nathalie got any sicker. "Perhaps we should hold off on any further involvement from the Peacock for the time being, and return the brooch to the safe? Just in case."

"But Ladybug and Chat Noir!" Nathalie protested. "And this _could_ be a cold, but there was just some damage still from using the Peacock before and it's gotten snarled up in the cold? Or maybe it's just lingering effects that are rearing their head. Because you _fixed_ the Peacock, it should be perfectly safe to use."

"I know, but we should test it." Gabriel didn't like the idea, either, considering that it meant no sentimonsters assisting him. He _would_ double-wield, but Nooroo had told him that it wasn't the best idea. Besides, if something had gone wrong in the fixing, he didn't exactly want to risk his own health. _Particularly_ if he was going to be going out to assist his akumas to try to tip the scales in his favor. "I wonder if a couple weeks without using the Peacock would be enough for us to draw a conclusion about if that's at the root of the problem, or if we might need longer."

Nathalie was frowning. "But sir, if we just go back to akuma-only attacks- right now, we still have the advantage. Ladybug and Chat Noir haven't managed to fully rebuild and retrain a backup team yet because we've kept up the pressure on them. If we let up on the pressure, that could let them catch back up. We _have_ to keep up on the attacks."

"And I'll do that, with the akumas." Gabriel's mind was made up now. He couldn't risk having Nathalie getting sicker. Besides, what if it was something more serious, like- well, perhaps like cancer? He wasn't sure what signs of cancer were, really, but those kinds of symptoms seemed like the sort of thing that cancer would maybe cause. At this point, he honestly wasn't sure what was the worse option, cancer or the Peacock somehow malfunctioning again. "And I want you to go to the doctor and get tests run. We want to come at this from all angles. Maybe it _is_ just a cold, but we want to be sure."

"I can have the tests run _without_ giving up the Miraculous," Nathalie protested. "Wouldn't it make sense to at least check and see if there's something else going on before we jump the gun and take the Peacock off of the battlefield? And what if it's just a cold and I _coincidentally_ get better after I'm not wearing it? There's no real way to _test_ anything."

That was fair enough, Gabriel supposed. He tapped his lips, considering.

They _could,_ of course, just go off of whether or not Nathalie got sick again once she resumed using the Peacock- assuming, of course, that her health improved after she took it off. But that would be putting her at risk again, and he didn't particularly want to do that. If they had another ally, they could always have _that_ person use the Peacock while Nathalie recovered. If it made them ill, then he would simply have to lock it away, or attempt to do another fix on it.

Except- _oh_. He had almost forgotten, but technically they _did_ have another person on their side! She wouldn't be his first choice in most circumstances, but the number of people who would actually go along with Hawkmoth's plans was limited and he couldn't be too picky.

"We can have our _other_ ally test it," Gabriel announced grandly, quite pleased with himself for coming up with the plan. "Then I'll continue to have a Peacock by my side, and if they get sick, too, we'll know what the problem is."

Nathalie frowned, puzzled. "Another ally? Who? The Gorilla?"

"No, no, of _course_ not!" Gabriel snapped, somewhat exasperated that she hadn't immediately caught on. Adrien's bodyguard was loyal to the family, sure, but not _that_ loyal. He'd turn them into the authorities in a second if he found out about Gabriel and Nathalie being the city's supervillains. "Are you crazy? He would _never_ support this. Think harder- the only person besides us who has _willingly_ been akumatized!"

Nathalie only had to think for a moment, and then her eyes went wide. "Lila Rossi? But sir, isn't she, ah..." She tilted her head to the side, considering how to word her concerns. Gabriel chuckled.

"Spiteful? Petty? Childish? Perhaps. But she's also hell-bent on revenge against Ladybug at the moment, has no moral compass, and is _very_ easy to manipulate. She wouldn't think twice about taking on a Miraculous and using it regularly." Gabriel was liking the idea more and more, really. If Lila got sick, it was really no skin off of his nose. Her use to him in her civilian form was starting to wear thin, and she was regularly gumming up the works in the photoshoots that she took part in. Her no longer being allowed to model due to health reasons would be a bonus, not a concern. "I would know who she is, she _wouldn't_ know who I am, and if she tries to step out of line, I know who her mom is." He had an entire file folder on Mrs. Rossi and her ex-husband, plus some information on Lila's extended family. If she tried to take the Miraculous and run... well, he knew _exactly_ where to look. "A few well-placed threats, and she would fall right back in line. She could take over the Peacock's duties for a month or two to give us the chance to figure out if your health has anything to do with the Miraculous."

"It seems risky," Nathalie commented after a moment. "I mean, I don't doubt that you'd be able to control her, at least in the long term. But what if she goes out and joins the fight? She's ruled by her emotions, it seems, and she might not think through the possible consequences." She snorted. "Actually, never mind _might_ \- she _won't_ think through the consequences. Add in the fact that she'll only be able to be out for five minutes after she creates a sentimonster..."

"It's not ideal," Gabriel acknowledged. "But your health is important. This will allow us to ensure that the Peacock is safe to use going forward, while still providing me with some degree of backup."

Nathalie sighed, then very quickly slid into a nearby chair before she could collapse after her legs wobbled. "I suppose. I _want_ to say that I'm just being paranoid, but this is just a little too similar for my comfort."

"It is. It's not just you." Gabriel tapped his fingers against his leg, trying to consider everything. He would bring the Miraculous over that evening, once dark had fallen. "Anything else to consider? You've dealt with Ms. Rossi more than I have."

"Just that she thinks that she's a master manipulator and will probably think that she's capable of tricking you," Nathalie warned after a minute's consideration. "Every time I talk with her, she has this look on her face that just _screams_ that she thinks we're dancing to her tune. Something like that could be a liability. She could think that she can get away with more, unless you're _very_ clear with her about how she doesn't fool you one bit from the start."

"True." Her delusions had to be very thoroughly stomped out. Perhaps he should record their entire interaction when he gave her the Peacock, just for blackmail purposes. One foot out of line, and he could get her in _quite_ a lot of trouble. Working with a supervillain would _not_ be taken lightly. "I'll do that. And if she decides to act out and cross Hawkmoth... well, she'll regret it."

* * *

Just like he had suspected, Lila had been all too willing to take over the Peacock duties. He hadn't told her _why_ , other than Mayura was temporarily unavailable and unable to fight, but that wasn't information that she had to have. Perhaps she would have accepted despite the potential risks- Lila seemed hotheaded enough for that to be a very real possibility- but he wasn't willing to risk her turning him down.

Gabriel smiled to himself as he tucked away a copy of the recording of his visit to Lila away in a safe spot. He had her right where he wanted her, and if his read on her emotions was anything to go off of- which it _was,_ his magic emotion detector was _very_ reliable- then she wouldn't be acting out or attempting to double-cross him. Lila had promised to make it to every akuma battle that she could- she was _very_ interested in seeing Ladybug's downfall, after all- and to exercise some common sense about what she could and couldn't handle, since Hawkmoth would be _very_ displeased with her if she lost the Peacock... and besides, being unmasked as a supervillain in that way wouldn't go well for her, either. Being defeated and unmasked as an akuma didn't ever get anyone in trouble, but if she had had a _Miraculous_...

Lila had turned sheet-white at that thought. Clearly even _she_ wasn't cocky enough to think that she would be able to get away with something like that.

All in all, it had gone pretty well, Gabriel thought. Soon enough, they should know if using the Peacock was still a problem, or if Nathalie could reclaim it. If it went well, and if they ever managed to get their hands on another Miraculous- one of the ones that the superheroes always pulled out as their backups- then they would have a third team member trained and waiting in the wings.

He truly hoped that it would go well. If it went really, really poorly... well, he might just end up regretting this whole thing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...can't see where anything might go wrong there, nope. Not at all.
> 
> New multi-chapter story! There will be multiple POVs in the story. Not all of them will be the POVs of unpleasant people, but...well, most will be. It's actually quite fun to write from the perspective or terrible people, sometimes. (Not sure what that says about me, lol)
> 
> As always, comments make my day! :)


	2. Lila

Knocks at her window well after dark and after her mom had gone to bed were rarely a good thing, particularly in a city with that had akumas popping up every other day whenever someone got upset.

Lila _knew_ that she was sitting perched on top of a mountain of lies. If someone somehow found out and got mad, that could more than explain a knock at her window at night. Except...

Well, an akuma wouldn't _knock_ , would they? Smashing through walls was _much_ more their style.

A second knock sounded, clearly much more impatient. Ever-so-cautiously, Lila finally pushed herself off of her bed and approached her window, squinting into the dark outside. A large shape came into focus, and then Lila caught sight of a purple suit and a full-head silver mask.

 _Hawkmoth_.

Grinning, Lila scrambled to open her window and let Hawkmoth in. Maybe most people in Paris would be screaming and running in the opposite direction, but they were _weak_. Hawkmoth offered power and opportunities, kinds that she would _never_ get otherwise. Whatever he had come for- whatever new opportunity he was offering- she was going to grab onto it with both hands and not let go.

"Ms. Rossi," Hawkmoth greeted her coolly, slipping through the opening. He straightened, and- okay, he was _tall_. Lila straightened reflexively, hoping not to feel so small next to him, but it didn't do much to close the height gap. "I hope this evening finds you well?"

Lila nodded, trying to keep herself from looking _too_ eager. "I'm doing all right. And you?"

"Well enough." Hawkmoth glanced around, his steely eyes catching on the door. Lila followed his gaze, then immediately picked up on his concern.

"My mom is asleep already," she assured him hastily, not wanting him to decide to leave and _not_ tell her about whatever opportunity he had clearly decided to offer. "And she's the only other one who lives in this apartment. _And_ she's a heavy sleeper, so she shouldn't wake up randomly."

Hawkmoth nodded sharply. "Good."

"So, uh, how can I help you?" Lila asked, wondering if it would be proper etiquette to offer a supervillain a chair. It would make him not _tower_ so much, but she also suspected that he wasn't planning on lingering. It would be better to get straight to the point. It would show respect for his time, and that would help make a good impression. "Do you need an akuma with specific powers or something? I can do that!"

"Not at the moment, but I will keep that in mind for the future. No, what I have in mind is a little more _responsibility_ than that." Hawkmoth reached into a pocket, pulling out a small drawstring bag. "Mayura is unable to come out and join me on the battlefield for a undetermined period of time. Normally, I would simply go back to just sending out akumas. But I don't want to give Ladybug and Chat Noir time to re-build their superhero team more than they already have."

Lila's eyes went wide and she started nodding at once, already putting together what Hawkmoth had come to her for. "Right. And you don't want to give their backup team more time to practice and get better."

"Precisely. So I need a temporary holder until Mayura can return." Hawkmoth stared at her, steely-eyed and intimidating. Lila gulped and straightened up again, trying her best to look reliable. This was an _incredible_ opportunity, and she was _not_ going to let it simply slip by. "So what I want to know is... can I trust you?"

Lila had to stop herself from nodding like a frantic bobblehead doll. She didn't want to come off as an overly-excitable teenager. It was just- well, this was the opportunity to help get back at Ladybug that she hadn't ever expected. She had thought that her only chances were going to be to occasional (or not-so-occasional) akumatizations, where she would _maybe_ be allowed to have some influence in what powers she got. But now, to get a _Miraculous_ \- even if it was only for a short while, until whenever Mayura returned- _that_ was amazing.

She would get to go after Ladybug during _every_ fight. And she could dream up the perfect sentimonster to go against the annoying superhero, one that could maybe be the one to take Ladybug down once and for all. If she got to coordinate with Hawkmoth, then they could maybe do a sentimonster-akuma pairing that would be _incredibly_ strong-

-she was getting ahead of herself. Lila had to be _calm_ , and work on gaining Hawkmoth's trust before she started making suggestions. She would have to be more cautious than she was with her classmates, since Hawkmoth was an adult, and probably a proud and paranoid one at that. That meant that he wouldn't be so quick to completely trust her. Trying to maneuver to be a more important part of his team right away would probably just result in her opportunity being ripped away from her.

Besides, he could sense emotions, right? So that meant that she had to be _way_ more careful than usual.

"Of _course_ you can trust me," Lila assured him, refraining from pressing a sincere hand to her heart. It worked at school, but with the supervillain it would probably appear dramatic and over-the-top. And maybe _he_ was probably a bit dramatic and over-the-top ( _definitely_ so, if the fact that he had akumas providing a soundtrack for him on Heroes Day was any indication), but something told her that he wouldn't appreciate that in a potential ally.

Besides, he knew that she liked lying and manipulating, and so steering _away_ from those mannerisms during her interactions with him would probably go over better.

"Good." Hawkmoth nodded once, sharply, then passed the drawstring over to her. Lila's fingers trembled as she practically tore the strings open to pull out the pin inside. A blue bubble burst into being as soon as her fingers touched the pin, and then it popped and revealed a blue floating... _thing_. "This is Duusu. Take good care of him. Now... let's discuss specifics."

* * *

The next morning, Lila added a simple scarf to her outfit to cover the Peacock pin and give Duusu somewhere to hide. It felt a little odd to have a constant companion, but that was the price she had to pay for power.

She could not _possibly_ look forward to the next akuma attack more. She just wanted to get out on the battlefield and kick Ladybug's butt. Lila had even found a generic keychain that she could put the amok in and tucked it in her pocket, so it would stay with her and Ladybug and Chat Noir would have to work harder to defeat the sentimonster.

"Ah, that's a nice scarf, Lila," Mrs. Rossi commented, setting Lila's breakfast down in front of her. "I don't recognize it- is it from one of your friends at school?"

"Oh, it's from Adrien," Lila claimed at once, running one hand down the scarf. It _wasn't_ , of course- it was just something that she had stolen from one of her photoshoots- but since it was _Gabriel_ brand, it was believable enough. "He said it went well with my hair."

"It really does. That's very sweet of him." Mrs. Rossi grabbed her own half-eaten plate from the counter, sitting down across the table to finish her breakfast. "Will you be out with your friends again today after school?"

"Yes, I've been invited to come along to a couple clubs this week and check them out," Lila lied. Or- well, it was a _partial_ lie, at least. Several of her classmates _had_ extended invitations for her to come check out the clubs at the school, but that had happened _ages_ ago and besides, Lila just wasn't interested. It would be more adults that she had to interact with and make excuses to when she was 'on a trip', and while she had been on a roll with the number of adults who were just believing her without any questions it just wasn't worth the risk. "So I'll be busy."

Not that it made _any_ difference to her mom, really. She would be at work regardless. It was just- well, it was good to keep up the illusion that she was always with her friends and 'boyfriend'. And if an akuma attacked and her mom tried to get in contact with her, then she would have an excuse for not picking up, since her mom would expect that she would be busy.

"Fantastic!" Mrs. Rossi smiled, then scraped up the last couple bites of bites on her plate and shoved them in her mouth, rising from the table and carrying her plate to the sink. "I have to get going to the embassy, since the ambassador has a whole pile of paperwork that he needs pulled together for his meeting this morning, but I made lunch for you. It's in the fridge. And if you have any menu requests, just text me during the day. I'm going to make a grocery run after work."

"Okay." Lila smiled at her mom, waiting for her to leave before rolling her eyes. She knew _exactly_ what was in her packed lunch, and she would _much_ rather go out to eat or have whatever was in the cafeteria. But she and her mom had argued about Lila getting lunch money instead of bringing a lunch only a few days ago and she hadn't won the argument- apparently it was cheaper to just bring a _sandwich_ every day, as if _that_ was important. If her mom was _actually_ an ambassador and not just a _secretary_ for the ambassador, then Lila would be able to afford to buy lunch every day.

She _would_ use her earnings from the photoshoots, but she needed that money to buy new outfits. If she didn't stay in fashion and wear nice clothes, then her credibility would start slipping.

Daughters of the ambassadors and friends of celebrities simply didn't wear off-brand clothing after all. And while that maybe forced Lila into the same handful of outfits over and over, she had managed to explain that away by claiming it was for environmental awareness reasons.

Maybe she could claim that about her lunches, too. Except- well, it probably wasn't a good idea to use the same excuses _too_ often. Maybe she could claim that she had decided to divert her lunch money to a charity for child hunger, since there were starving children across the world who could use it more than her. Yes, that sounded like a good excuse.

...it still wouldn't make her sandwich taste any better. Maybe she could at least persuade her mom to pack something better for her lunch if Lila stopped arguing about eating out every day.

With a couple more quick bites, Lila finished up her breakfast and stuck her plate in the sink. It didn't take her long to collect her school things- _including_ her lunch, which was definitely a boring old sandwich- and then head down to the bus stop to ride over to school.

As she waited for the bus, Lila's mind went back to the night before. She was still _super_ excited about the opportunity, even though- well, it came with some risks, Hawkmoth had made that clear. Risks, and also an ally that had made it _very_ clear that he Did Not fully trust her, at least not _yet_.

There had definitely been some not-so-veiled threats against her mom for if Lila decided to 'take liberties' while she had the Peacock Miraculous. And while Lila was really more or less indifferent about her mom, if anything happened to her and Lila had to be placed with a foster family or something...

Well, that wouldn't be a good thing. But that was _fine_ , because she wasn't planning on pulling anything stupid while she had the Miraculous, like trying to keep it after Mayura became available again or trying to manipulate him to do what she wanted, even if it conflicted with his goals. After all, their goals _already_ lined up- she just wanted to take down Ladybug and get her revenge, even if Ladybug (unfortunately) now wouldn't know who was behind her defeat.

Lila supposed that it didn't really matter if Ladybug knew or not in the end. All that was important was _taking her down_.

Hopefully the superheroes' defeat would happen while Lila was still involved, before Mayura came back. Maybe the supervillain team's shake-up would be just what they needed to finally make the jump from always narrowly losing to actually _winning_. Lila could bring in new ideas, new plots, and a new pair of eyes. She didn't even necessarily have to convince Hawkmoth of all of them- some, she could just carry out on her own.

And _no_ , he hadn't forbidden that. If he wanted her to follow his lead, she would. But she also had to be independent, able to fight on her own and act independently when Hawkmoth's focus had to be elsewhere in the battle. She could carry out her ideas then, and maybe they would turn out to be just what Hawkmoth needed. He would get the Miraculous for whatever he needed them for, and- well, he would reward her for her help, right? Maybe she would get another Miraculous to use, one she would get to keep _permanently_.

Which one would she want? Lila tilted her head, considering. Maybe the Ladybug Miraculous, to really rub it into Ladybug's face. It would be a trophy. And she would go out _often_ , just to rub it in her nemesis' face. But maybe Hawkmoth would need to keep that one and she would have to choose another. Presumably he would be able to retrieve the box of Miraculous from Ladybug after she was defeated, so Lila would be able to take her pick. There would be a _lot_ of choices, a lot of tempting offers.

Her first choice- after the Ladybug Miraculous, for gloating reasons- would be the Fox. Those powers were what she had used most often when she was akumatized, and they were familiar and _useful_. She could make illusions of herself with all sorts of famous people and take pictures and show them off to further discredit annoying little dissenters. She could make illusions of the aforementioned dissenters doing bad things, just to get them in trouble. It would be _super_ useful, even if the actual Fox Miraculous was apparently a tad more limited in the amount of power it had compared to her akuma self.

Another choice would be the Horse, maybe. She could hop over to other countries and actually call in to her classes from there for added realism when she was off 'traveling'! She might even be able to meet some of the people she was always claiming connections to and actually start forming those connections- though that might be a bit of a stretch. She was smart enough to know that a few chance encounters would not automatically lead to songs written about her and promises to always drop everything to do things on her request. So maybe the Horse wouldn't be _quite_ as useful.

Maybe there was a kwami of manipulation among the ones Ladybug held on to. That would be _really_ useful, something she could use to force the famous people connections and make all of her dreams reality. It would make manipulating her peers easier, too- or at least more foolproof- and _that_ would be really, really helpful. _That_ would be the ideal Miraculous for her, if it even existed.

All she had to do was be the best sidekick Hawkmoth had ever had and defeat Ladybug. And once that was done, and she had her own source of power- an _unconditional_ source, no threats to her (or, she supposed, to her mom's) general well-being- then, well, then would come rewards to her civilian self. And after that?

Well, the world would be open to her, and the possibilities were endless.

The bus pulled up and for once, Lila had a real smile on her face as she got on. Maybe for everyone else on the bus, it was just a normal day. But for her?

It was the start of a new era.


	3. Lila: Part 2

When news of an akuma attack reached Lila, she barely bit back a cheer. In the couple days since she got the Peacock, she had been waiting for this moment.

Ladybug would be going _down_ today.

A glance at the clock told Lila that she had _plenty_ of time before her mom came home- honestly, Hawkmoth had timed the attack _perfectly_ because she didn't have to make excuses to get out of class or get away from her mom- and then she transformed. The magic rushed over her- it wasn't a _completely_ new sensation, she had tried doing it before- and then Pavona rushed out the window, heading towards the battle. It was a loud one, and unsurprisingly, the superheroes were already there. Hawkmoth wasn't, not yet- he tended to show up later in the fight when he did go out, so that didn't mean anything- so it was going to be two on two, at least until she pulled out her amok.

Lila didn't want to do that _too_ early. She apparently was going to have that ridiculous five-minute timer like Ladybug and Chat Noir, so getting her sentimonster out _too_ soon would mean that she wouldn't be able to stay on the battlefield and kick superhero butt. Apparently Mayura _hadn't_ had that particular drawback, which was both annoying and unfair, but there was nothing that Lila could do about that.

It was absolutely child's play to sneak up behind the superheroes, dodging over the rooftops and not flinging herself up into the sky like the superheroes always seemed to. Pavona smirked as she slid into position, right above Ladybug.

This was just too easy. The superheroes hadn't spotted her at _all_. Really, all she needed to do was pounce and fall directly on top of Ladybug and then grab her earrings. Just like that, it would be _bye-bye, little bug_.

Sure, there would still be Chat Noir to deal with, but it was pretty obvious to anyone with eyes that he always took direction from Ladybug. With _her_ out of the picture, it should be pretty easy to lure Chat Noir into a trap and take him down with the sheer force of numbers. Four against one- her, Hawkmoth, his akuma and her amok- would be overwhelming, and then they would have the Cat Miraculous in their hands.

With visions of victory in her head, Pavona took a couple steps back before taking a running start and launching herself into the air, dropping through the sky straight at Ladybug's head.

_Impact in eight- seven- six- five- four- three-_

"Ladybug, _watch out!_ "

Ladybug jerked in response to Chat Noir's shout, not even hesitating to figure out which way the threat was coming from before bolting, going from a standstill to a speeding train in half a second. All of a sudden, Pavona's target was gone, leaving nothing between her and the _very_ solid street and no time for her to catch herself.

 _Crunch_.

So much for an awe-inspiring (or fear-inspiring) entrance.

Cursing, Pavona shoved herself to her feet before the superheroes could turn on her, raising her hands into what she _hoped_ was a battle stance. Across from her, Ladybug had already spun around to face Pavona, her yo-yo whistling as it spun. The superhero's eyes flashed over Pavona once, twice, and then her eyebrows went up and she exchanged a fast look with Chat Noir.

Pavona scowled. What kind of look was _that?_ It seemed _super_ judgy, which- uh, what was Ladybug judging _her_ for? She had seen the superheroes do undignified wipeouts _loads_ of times.

(She also had a compilation of those clips on her computer, just for amusement's sake. She _had_ intended on stringing them together in a video, but she didn't know how to do that and it really wouldn't be possible to ask any of her classmates, since it would just look suspicious.)

"So Hawkmoth has a new little sidekick," Ladybug taunted, her eyes narrowing at Pavona and- _ugh_ , she was _smirking!_ Clearly she wasn't going to take Pavona seriously as a threat. "What happened to Mayura?"

"Like I'm gonna tell you," Pavona snarked back, plastering on her own smirk. Ladybug didn't know what was about to hit her. Lila had been plenty powerful as an akuma, so it only made sense that she would be even _more_ powerful when she had the full strength of a Miraculous on her side instead of just whatever portion she got as an akuma. "You're gonna be wishing that she was still here soon, though, just wait!"

Chat Noir snorted. "Yeah, we'll see about that." He glanced over to Ladybug. "D'you wanna take the akuma while I take Princess Wannabe here?"

"You got it!"

"Wait, no-" Pavona started before catching herself. She should have guessed that Chat Noir would take on the more intimidating threat and leave the weaker opponent to Ladybug. _Fine_. She would just take him down first, then. That, or at least keep him occupied enough that he wouldn't be able to come to Ladybug's aid when the akuma overpowered her-

Pavona couldn't hold back the yelp as she was suddenly forced to defend herself from a too-sudden attack from Chat Noir. He had lunged before she was ready, and now she was forced to be on the defense instead of being the one to push the attacks.

One blow, then two, three, four-and-five too fast to count. Pavona couldn't help but yelp again as the butt end of Chat Noir's baton swung around and jabbed her in the stomach, too fast of a movement to follow. She barely ducked the swing at her head- she hadn't asked Hawkmoth how much the suit protected her against other users, and clearly that was a _major_ oversight- and found herself scrambling backwards on sheer instinct, everything in her screaming that she was outmatched.

Which- which was _ridiculous_ , if she thought about it logically! She was smart! She was crafty! The superheroes had _struggled_ to win against her akuma forms! It was just that she was having to rely on hand-to-hand combat instead of having powers, which was an adjustment, and-

-and there was no _time_ for thinking about it too much, because Chat Noir wasn't letting up in his attack at _all_. Pavona was sent flying with one blow, then had to roll out of the way of another full-force blow. The next hit so close under her ear that her hair gave her scalp a sharp tug as it went flying.

Pavona dashed out of the way, getting in a couple unaimed swings and buying herself a little space. Chat Noir was relentless, though, and she was getting outfought.

Just because she kept reflexively trying to use powers that she didn't have anymore, that was why! It wasn't because he was _better_ or anything stupid like that.

Still, she hadn't been expecting that, and staying out like this wouldn't go very well. Pavona flicked out her fan, pulling out a feather like Duusu had told her to do. Then she would have to- to pull in negative energy from the air? That part hadn't been very clear-

And then that thought, too, got interrupted when she had to dodge out of the way of another of Chat Noir's blows and then he promptly grabbed her by the bottom of her skirt as she fled and _flung_ her into the sky, tumbling head over heels down the street. Pavona landed with another _oomph_ , rolling over to see Chat Noir dashing down to road towards her, ready to hit her again.

It was now or never. Only half-focused on what she was doing, Pavona tried to pull in negative energy- and clearly _something_ was happening, the feather was changing colors- and then slapped it into the closest thing she could reach.

Unfortunately, that _thing_ was a bit of broken asphalt, but it would have to do. A monster erupted out of nowhere, pushing Chat Noir back. Pavona smirked in triumph- _now_ the fight could go her way!- before a sharp _beep_ from her brooch wiped the smirk off of her face.

Right. Now she just had five minutes to defeat Chat Noir and get out. _That_ wasn't exactly the best position to be in.

"Get _back_ , ugly!" Chat Noir yelled at the sentimonster, whacking the whatever-it-was in the face with his baton. He spun it, hitting it again. And again, and again, and again.

He was actually _pushing it back_ , Pavona realized with a bit of horror. Even though her sentimonster _looked_ intimidating, it was shying away from the hits, continuously losing ground. Pavona moved back as well, trying to keep her creation between her and the superhero while she figured out a new plan of attack.

Her brooch beeped. _Four minutes_.

Pavona scowled, readying her weapon again as Chat Noir advanced another couple of steps. Maybe if she jumped over her sentimonster and dropped down on him? Or she could try to circle to the side without being noticed, or- _no!_

While she had been distracted, Chat Noir had pushed far enough forward to grab the bit of pavement that she had possessed with the amok- and had dropped right after, _that_ hadn't been the best plan _-_ and crushed it, letting the feather loose. Barely a moment later, Ladybug's yo-yo zipped out of nowhere, snagging the feather and purifying it. Pavona glanced in her direction, utterly baffled- Ladybug was supposed to be busy with the akuma, right?- to see the formerly akumatized person sitting on a rooftop, just recently defeated. Somehow, without Pavona realizing it, Ladybug had won. Now, it was two against one, and _not_ in her favor.

As her sentimonster dissolved, Pavona _bolted,_ scrambling for somewhere to hide and detransform. She might have to walk home, but that was better than getting ganged up on and possibly even defeated.

Ladybug and Chat Noir might have won this battle, but it had only been Pavona's first time out. Next time, she would know what to expect. She would be ready.

And Ladybug would be going _down_.

* * *

Things _really_ weren't going as Lila had planned. Not even remotely _close_.

"I can't believe we haven't _won_ yet," Lila muttered as she slumped to the floor in her room after coming back following a fight. It had been almost a week- and seven akuma attacks, Hawkmoth had decided to pick up the pace- since she took over as the Peacock holder, and they hadn't made _any_ progress towards defeating the superheroes, even though she had _definitely_ (in her eyes, at least) already made a _lot_ of progress with getting used to her powers and fighting. "That's so _annoying!_ "

"Well, Hawkmoth has been trying to win for over a year now without any success," Duusu piped up, ever-helpful and ever-missing-the-point. "So a week is hardly any time at all!"

Lila scowled. That was _entirely_ unhelpful.

She was used to getting results right away, darn it. Lila's lies had always brought her instant (or near-instant) gratification. She did something or said something, she got a positive result within minutes, or at least within a day. Having to _work_ at it for any significant amount of time without seeing results wasn't something that she was really used to doing.

But she wasn't going to give up. She still had some ideas that she wanted to try out but hadn't yet, since she was still getting used to her powers. All she had needed was a little practice, and then she could truly be Ladybug's worst nightmare.

It was just annoying that it wasn't happening _faster_.

Still scowling, Lila headed over to her computer. The news feed on it was still going, left on after she had used it to figure out where the akuma was and what its powers were. Madam Chamack was still talking onscreen, so Lila popped her headphones back on. She immediately regretted it.

"-so glad that we have our fantastic superheroes to always save the day," Madam Chamack was saying, beaming at the camera. "A big thanks to them! And now, for those of you who missed it, our lovely editors have put together a highlight reel of our most recent akuma attack!"

Onscreen, Madam Chamack's face was replaced by a scene from the akuma attack. Pavona stood tall and proud on a rooftop, her ( _very_ fashionable) outfit fluttering a little with the breeze. Then the superheroes landed and she _charged..._ only for her face to be met by a _very_ solid roundhouse kick from Ladybug. Pavona went flying back, landing on her back in an undignified heap.

Lila's teeth ground together. Ladybug looked positively _smug_ as she dashed towards the fallen Pavona, clearly ready to deal another blow to her opponent. The scene was cut short, though, swapping to a shot of Chat Noir tripping the akuma with his baton, and Lila smirked when she realized _why_.

Yes, Ladybug getting tossed off of a rooftop by Hawkmoth probably wasn't considered a _highlight_ to most of Paris, was it? Unfortunate. _Lila_ certainly considered those parts to be the best sections of the fight.

Disappointingly, the rest of the highlight reel went the same way. It showed the akuma getting beat up, Pavona getting beat up, Pavona getting cornered and panic-creating what was probably her weakest sentimonster yet to get herself out. The cameras had also caught Pavona's childish frustrated stomp after Hawkmoth had ordered her to retreat, which...

Well, it wasn't a shining moment of hers. But in her defense, she _had_ just been making some progress with fighting Ladybug when Chat Noir totally _cheated_ and attacked her from behind. It hadn't been like she had just been sitting on the ground and flailing helplessly or something.

If it was just her and her sentimonster against Ladybug, she would _definitely_ win. But did _anyone_ ever acknowledge that? _No._

With a huff, Lila closed the window. Madam Chamack's voice cut off, and Lila breathed a sigh of relief that she no longer had to hear the absolutely _maddening_ gushing over Ladybug. That relief was short-lived when her phone dinged with a message from Alya. Lila opened it, eager for something to distract her from her latest failure, only to see a message squealing about the latest fight and hadn't Ladybug looked so _amazing_ as she took down Hawkmoth's newest sidekick?

 _Ugh._ It was unfortunate that Alya was such a _Ladybug_ fan, but it was an unavoidable annoyance. Alya had _visibility_ thanks to her little blog, and that visibility was something that Lila needed access to. So she had to play the part of Ladybug's best friend ( _ha_ ) to keep Alya firmly by her side and hanging off of Lila's every word.

Which meant, unfortunately, that Lila had to grit her teeth and type back an all-too-cheery response, praising Ladybug and her fighting prowess. She couldn't resist a dig, though, by pointing out how _nice_ Pavona's outfit looked next to Ladybug's. She had offered to redesign Ladybug's suit for her before, of course, but the superhero was just too _attached_ to her basic look. Maybe now she would reconsider, since the supervillains looked so well-dressed next to her!

Smirking, Lila set her phone aside. Maybe the Ladyblog would run an article soon calling out the plainness of Ladybug's costume. It wouldn't be _framed_ like that, of course, but- well, maybe Alya would do a comparison of the superheroes' costumes and the supervillain's outfits? Anyone with eyes would be able to tell that the supervillains had _far_ more fashion sense. They didn't look like they had slapped on a onesie and called it a day.

"Next time, I'll do better," Lila told the room at large, pulling up a secret file on her computer buried several folders deep. It was where she stored all of her notes to herself about her secret identity, the few suggestions that Hawkmoth had given her and ideas she had come up with for sentimonster powers. "I'll do better, and I'll show the superheroes. They'll regret crossing me!"

Next time, she would pull out one of her best sentimonster ideas. It would be too slippery for Ladybug and Chat Noir to catch, and then while they were scratching their heads, she could sneak in behind them and get their Miraculous. Maybe today's weak sentimonster could actually work in her favor by making the superheroes underestimate her for the next fight. She just had to take advantage of that and hit _hard_ , and hope that Hawkmoth would match her with a really strong akuma. Maybe she could talk to him and coordinate the powers for maximum effect- except no, he had seemed rather peeved at her after the fight. It wouldn't be smart for her to push her luck-

The thought was cut off by a sudden tickle in Lila's throat and suddenly she found herself coughing so hard that her eyes watered. Her breath caught painfully in her throat, and it took her a minute to stop coughing. When she did, she frowned.

 _That_ was strange and completely out of nowhere. She hadn't been eating or drinking anything, so she hadn't swallowed water or something wrong. She hadn't been sick, and- despite what she said at school- she didn't have allergies. There hadn't been any dust stirred up in her room, so it couldn't be _that_ , either.

Maybe it was just a weird one-off thing and she shouldn't worry about it.

Her phone dinged again, and Lila reached out to grab it, opening up the message right away.

_Alya: Superheroes: function over fashion. Supervillains: fashion over function. That could be a really cool Ladyblog article! It really shows how much smarter our superheroes are compared to the supervillains!_

Lila could only bury her face in her pillows and scream. That was _not_ the way she had wanted Alya to go with that idea!

Seriously, why was _nothing_ going her way today?

* * *

Another week later, and Lila's partnership with Hawkmoth had gone from bad to worse.

All of her best sentimonster ideas had been _completely_ wasted after their powers completely clashed with the akuma of the day's powers. She had abandoned pre-brainstormed ideas after a particularly disastrous one, going back to looking at what Hawkmoth's akuma could do and then basing her sentimonster off of that. Still, even with that, they weren't doing as well as Hawkmoth had been doing with Mayura, which- well, it was _infuriating_.

Hawkmoth had even chewed Lila out several times during the week for needing to be rescued during the battles- by her sentimonster, by his akuma, even, on one occasion, by Hawkmoth himself- for taking "unnecessary risks" (really, calculated gambles that just hadn't gone quite right, usually because _he_ and _his akuma_ hadn't cooperated with her or because she had been up late plotting and was super-tired during the battle) and getting overpowered by the more experienced fighters, aka the pain-in-the-butt superheroes. He hadn't been pleased about that, and after their most recent battle, he had ordered her to stay on the back lines now _or else_ and just let her sentimonster do the fighting for her.

That- that was so _unfair_ , really! It had made her so mad that she had stomped around her room for two hours, mad enough to be akumatized... but Hawkmoth hadn't sent a butterfly her way. Which was probably wise, because more than a little of her ire at the time had been directed straight at him.

Really, she couldn't figure out why things weren't working out right! Lila had held her own as an akuma every time she got akumatized. Sure, maybe she had always lost in the end, but she hadn't had the advantage of getting to work with a sentimonster. The battles with her had always dragged out, because she was smart and clever and _capable_ and a good fighter! It made absolutely _no_ sense that she was getting her butt handed to her by Ladybug now that she held her own Miraculous. She had said as much to Hawkmoth when he last scolded her, and he had just chewed her out _more_ for expecting that she would get the same boost in fighting instincts from a Miraculous as she had from an akumatization.

Needless to say, it wasn't looking good for her chances of getting a Miraculous as a thanks once the superheroes got defeated. Even if she got to play a role in that defeat, Lila was getting the feeling that Hawkmoth was starting to get tired of her and her disappointing performances out on the battlefield.

Really, though, was it truly _Lila's_ fault that she struggled with fighting? Shouldn't Hawkmoth have given her some training or something first instead of just handing her a bit of magical jewelry- magical jewelry that apparently _didn't_ boost her fighting ability, _that_ would have been useful information from the start!- and sending her out against superheroes that had had over a year's experience with battling akumas and supervillains alike? He was practically setting her up to fail when she looked at it like that! And when she asked about training- like a _responsible_ person, like a _motivated_ person- he had just blown her off.

Seriously. _Setting her up to fail_. And Lila was _positive_ that with a little training, she would be able to take on the superheroes and win, no problem. It would totally even out the battlefield! The problem was that she didn't _have_ any training, and apparently wasn't about to get any, either.

Honestly, was Hawkmoth serious about wanting to win or not? Because he _really_ wasn't acting like it, what with not wanting to train her at all.

And then, because apparently things were _determined_ not to go her way, Lila was coming down with something. She had been feeling a little woozy sometimes for the last couple of days, and had been coughing, too, with the coughing fits becoming more and more frequent.

Lila _refused_ to let Hawkmoth know. She couldn't let him think that she was _weak_ and take the Miraculous away or something, just because she wasn't at 100%.

Maybe it was for the better that Hawkmoth had banned her from the battlefield for the time being. If her _stupid_ cold distracted her mid-fight and made her lose, then Hawkmoth would be _furious._ It wouldn't matter that it wasn't her _fault_ that she was sick, or that she had been willing to power through whatever bug was attacking her system to help him. No, all Hawkmoth would care about was how she had inconvenienced _him_.

Really, he was a _super_ sucky person to be on a team with, but Lila wasn't about to quit. She had joined him with a _goal_ in mind, darn it, and she wouldn't waste her opportunity.

Maybe Hawkmoth sucked, but he wasn't _call-out-her-civilian-self-for-lying-when-it-wasn't-hurting-anyone_ levels of suck. Not _yet_ , at least. He was kind of trending in that direction, though.

"Stupid Ladybug, stupid Chat Noir, stupid _cold_ ," Lila grumbled to herself as she downed half of her travel cup of tea in one go, hoping to ease her sore throat. She had taken the opportunity to leave the school campus at lunch to get tea in a nearby cafe in the hopes that it would help, but- well, she was pretty sure that the overly-hot tea had just burned her tongue. Which was exactly the _opposite_ of helping. "And stupid-" She bit back the _stupid Hawkmoth_ before it could slip. She didn't know how much Duusu would report to Hawkmoth when Mayura took him back, but she didn't want to accidentally sabotage her chances of working with him again after this, whether that was just as a frequently akumatized person or with a different Miraculous, if they managed to steal one of the temporary heroes' Miraculous. Sure, he had seen her curse Hawkmoth out before, right after he banned her from coming out in person, but she had managed to wave that away as a temporary surge of annoyance, a feeling that would be gone soon enough. _Besides_ , there was no obvious connection between her anger at him now and what had actually happened. Hawkmoth hadn't given her the cold, after all. " _Ugh_. This is no fun."

"At least your friends seem eager to help!" Duusu chirped from her shirt collar. "Three have offered to help you study, and then another offered to let you copy her homework if you aren't feeling well enough to finish! They're very supportive."

Lila resisted the urge to curl her lip at the kwami. Seriously, wasn't Duusu supposed to be some wise, ancient being? Shouldn't it be _obvious_ to him by now that her classmates weren't really her _friends?_ Sure, _they_ probably thought that they were, but all they were to her was a means to an end. And of _course_ they were tripping over themselves to help her.

Poor, unfortunate Lila. She spent _so_ much time helping charities and doing good things for others and what did she get in return? Hearing loss and tinnitus and weak joints and illnesses affecting her more than most people. She was _already_ struggling to keep up, what with all of the other things that she was trying to juggle, so of _course_ it made sense for her classmates to step up and help her so that Lila could continue to be a force for good in the world.

Not, of course, that she was _actually_ out helping people. Volunteering and organizing charities and donating and all of that- well, that was _work_. Work that wouldn't benefit her in any way and would just unnecessarily fill up her time. Why should other people's suffering be _her_ problem?

It worked just as well to just claim that she was volunteering and helping other people out. She got all of the glory with none of the work, which was a rather good arrangement in her opinion.

(What _wasn't_ a good arrangement, at least in Lila's eyes, was having to deal with an annoying flying sidekick to get her magical powers. Duusu was _super_ annoying and always wanted to know what she was doing and always asked about the stories she told and seemed quite puzzled when Lila told him that _no_ , that one wasn't true either.

She didn't need a small anthropomorphic being questioning why she was making up stories. It wasn't like it was _any_ of Duusu's business anyway.)

Lila left the cafe partway through her lunch hour after she had started coughing and everyone around her started giving her a major side-eye. She resisted the urge to glare at them- seriously, couldn't they mind their own business? It wasn't like she was coughing _at_ them- and packed up instead, heading out to a quiet park to finish nursing her cup of tea, hoping that it would make a difference. On the way back to school, she picked up a cup of coffee.

Hawkmoth had decided to wake the whole city up with a _crazy_ early attack, after all. Maybe she needed the tea for her throat- it had felt absolutely _terrible_ after the fight, even though she hadn't done any fighting in person- but she needed coffee so that she wouldn't fall asleep in her afternoon classes. If she _did_ , her mom would probably be called and then that would be the end of- well, her reign at school, probably.

She didn't want her mom anywhere _near_ her teachers, _thank-you-very-much._

"Oh, you already picked up a drink," Rose said when Lila got back to school, already regretting drinking so much. She was going to be running to the bathroom _all afternoon_. Rose looked a bit disappointed as she rolled up onto her toes to look into Lila's cup, clutching a thermos in her hand. "I made some tea for you! It's probably better for your throat than coffee."

Lila opened her mouth, very ready to make up something about not being able to have tea, when she suddenly became very aware about how very much her throat _still_ hurt.

...maybe she could get away with frequent bathroom trips without the teachers calling her mom.

"Thank you, Rose, you're so kind!" Lila exclaimed, pressing her free hand to her heart. "So kind and thoughtful! That thermos looks really well insulated, so hopefully it'll stay warm longer. Then I can have warm drinks all afternoon! That will be really nice. And hopefully it will help my throat get better before my conference call with the royal family in England this weekend. I want to persuade them to help with my efforts to end global pollution, and I won't be able to cover all of my points if I lose my voice!"

"Oh, that would be terrible," Rose agreed, passing the thermos over to her. "I hope you feel better soon!"

Lila smiled, accepting the tea. "Thank you!"

Thankfully, Rose took off back to her desk after that and Lila could largely drop her act. She couldn't drop it _completely_ \- acting anywhere near as sullen as she felt would damage her public image, and that was the one thing she couldn't risk- but she didn't have to pretend to be all perky and thankful and selfless.

It wasn't that hard to keep up the act on a normal day, but when Lila was already frustrated and angry and feeling sick, it was just that much more energy that she didn't _have_.

 _Ugh_. How unlucky did she have to be to get sick right in the middle of her big opportunity with Hawkmoth?

That was _so_ unfair.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...aaaand here we see a Lila sinking so far into her own delusions that we have to wonder if she'll ever clue up again.
> 
> As always, comments make my day! :)


	4. Lila: Part 3

Two more battles passed with Pavona's role reduced to the sidelines only, her only contribution to the battles being her amok. The restriction still chafed at her, of course, but since her cold had only gotten worse Lila had to admit that maybe it was a good thing that Hawkmoth wasn't expecting her out. She felt absolutely drained and exhausted by the time she detransformed after each battle, and it was only because she was _fantastic_ with make-up that she managed to hide how terrible she felt from her mom and everyone at school.

Normally she wouldn't hesitate to jump on the opportunity to get even more sympathy and help, but who knew who Hawkmoth was? He could be anyone and have eyes anywhere, and she couldn't risk her poorly-timed illness getting back to him. A minor cold was one thing, but this whatever-it-was was out of hand. That didn't mean that she was an invalid or something- she could still participate via her amok, obviously, since that was the only way that she _had_ been participating for the last several fights- but he might decide that her judgement would be impaired by her being sick or something ridiculous like that and take away the Peacock.

At this point, Lila was scrambling just to keep the Peacock in her hands at all. Having _some_ power was better than none at all, especially when it came to Ladybug and trying to defeat her.

(At this point, Lila _had_ to see Ladybug defeated. Her blood boiled more and more every time she saw the stupid bug- how _dare_ she be so smug about beating the akumas and sentimonsters? She should be- _what_ , Lila didn't know for sure, but every time she and Chat Noir defeated the supervillain's monsters, Ladybug had this _stupid_ little smirk on her face and Lila just wanted to wipe it off.)

Still, even with Pavona operating from the sidelines, Hawkmoth hadn't been happy with her. He had snarked about how bad he thought her amoks were- as though he had a leg to stand on, considering some of his akumas in the past!- and acted as though they were super-weak, even though he and his akuma were _definitely_ hiding behind her amoks and making them do all of the hard work. If Lila hadn't been worried about losing her Miraculous before, she _definitely_ was now.

And then Hawkmoth showed up at her window again, late at night, and Lila's heart dropped straight into her stomach.

 _No!_ No, she hadn't gotten enough of a chance to prove herself! She hadn't gotten to _really_ fight Ladybug and get under the superheroes' skin. She just needed a little longer, another week or two and some advice to get back on track so that she could be a strong partner for Hawkmoth. It wasn't- it wasn't like she was _actually_ incompetent!

Hawkmoth rapped at the window again, looking less than impressed with the delay. Lila startled out of her thoughts, then scrambled to go get the window and let him in. She didn't have much of a choice, really.

If this was the end of her time as Pavona, hopefully- _hopefully_ \- Hawkmoth would at least keep akumatizing her so that she could have more chances to defeat Ladybug. Hopefully she hadn't screwed things up so badly that he was going to decide that he wasn't even going to have her as an akuma anymore.

"Good evening," Hawkmoth said stiffly once he had crawled through the window and straightened up inside of her room. His eyes flashed to her neck, where the Peacock pinned to her shirt. She had had it under a scarf earlier- thankfully her cold made for an easy excuse as to why she had suddenly started wearing scarves- but it was annoying to wear scarves for longer than strictly necessary and she had taken it off as soon as she went to her room for the night. "I trust you are well?"

"I- yes, thanks," Lila managed, vaguely puzzled by the inquiry. Hawkmoth had never asked after her before. She was there to be a tool and a help, not to be coddled and watched after. "A-and yourself?"

"Good." Hawkmoth glanced around her room, then back at Lila. "I came to give you an update. I'll be out of the city soon, starting this upcoming Saturday and extending for at least a week. It's unfortunate, but unavoidable. I figured that I should probably let you know so that you wouldn't wonder why there weren't any akumas, _and_ to let you know that you are not, under _any_ circumstances, to try to battle the superheroes during that time. And that includes sending out amoks." He fixed her with a long look. "And I will have a _very_ close eye on the news, so I _will_ know if you disobey orders. And if you do..."

The silence hung in the air, threatening and ominous. Lila quashed the urge to gulp and glance towards her door, towards the room where here mom was sleeping.

"I won't try to fight them," Lila said hastily. "I promise."

"Good. We both know that it would end in disaster anyway." Hawkmoth's voice was curt, clearly not about to waste time sparing her feelings. Lila thought that that was rather unfair, really- _disaster_ was _such_ a strong word- but she would probably feel a bit on edge without the assurance of both Hawkmoth and one of his akumas. "I hope to send out a couple more akumas before I leave. With any luck, one of them will be successful."

Lila nodded, refraining from saying anything. _Luck_ didn't exactly seem to be the supervillains' thing, but maybe they had been wearing down the superheroes more than they realized and a strong sentimonster and akuma combo would finish them off.

A supervillain could only hope.

"Anyway, that's all I came about," Hawkmoth added when Lila didn't say anything. "Continue to stay out of battles but be ready with a sentimonster, that's all I ask."

Lila nodded again, feeling like a bobblehead doll. "Of course. I can manage that."

"I should hope so. I'm hardly asking for a miracle." Hawkmoth sneered at that, then headed out the window. Lila stayed where she was for a minute before hurrying to close the window and lock it, pulling her blinds shut so that Hawkmoth couldn't spy on her.

And then she rolled her eyes. Seriously, that was _all_ Hawkmoth had to say to his _partner?_ He could have given her tips to help her improve her skills as Pavona for her to work on while he was gone, or ideas that he wanted her to implement! She might not listen to _all_ of them- after all, he had been failing for a _lot_ longer than she had- but it would be useful information to know, at least, and then she could come up with her own ideas based off of his.

It was like he wasn't _actually_ interested in improving her abilities as Pavona before Mayura took the Peacock back over again. Like he wasn't _actually_ interested in winning.

(Or like he had given her up as largely a lost cause, but Lila wasn't going to think that way. No, the entire problem laid with _him_ , not her.)

Still, she wasn't about to lay down and let Hawkmoth's incompetence spoil her opportunity. Lila could practice fighting while Hawkmoth was gone- not with an opponent, of course, just by herself, that would have to be enough- and then maybe she would be good enough to rejoin him on the front lines and try to kick Ladybug's butt again. She could make her excuses with her mom and head out after dinner- not that she really _needed_ excuses, as if her mom would ever stop her from going out- and then do a bit of jumping around and kicking in the relative privacy of some abandoned warehouses or something. There were bound to be a few around Paris, right?

...maybe she would just practice in her own room after school or something. Actually searching out warehouses and walking over to them sounded like too much work. Maybe the neighbors downstairs would complain, but really, who cared?

(And if they said something to her mom, then Lila would just say that she had take-home exercises for gym that she had to do to help catch back up to where they were meant to be after the school was closed for so long, or maybe she could say that she still felt very behind the other students after transferring and so was trying to get in the same kind of shape that they were in. Her mom would eat up either excuse, Lila was positive, and _ta-da_ , problem solved.)

Maybe Paris was going to get a week off from akuma attacks, but Lila wasn't going to let the week go to waste. She was going to train, and prepare, and-

Lila's thoughts got cut off by a round of painful coughing, her throat pulsing in pain with every cough. She grimaced, reaching for her water bottle in an attempt to sooth the ache.

 _Well_. She would train and prepare and all that, as long as this _stupid_ cold went away.

* * *

Three days into her akuma- and Hawkmoth-free week, Lila decided that really, hand-to-hand combat was overrated.

After looking at more than a few at-home training videos, it became _very_ obvious that getting to a level where she would actually be able to hold her own in any sort of fight would take a _lot_ of time (and effort, which- _ugh._ No, thanks). It would be impossible to put in that sort of work and make any sort of meaningful progress before Mayura reclaimed her Miraculous, or at least Lila assumed so. She hadn't exactly been told _when_ that might happen, but Hawkmoth had made it clear from the start that this wasn't going to be a long-term thing.

Besides, Hawkmoth had made it clear during their final fight before their break that she wasn't going to be returning to the front lines as Pavona anytime soon, not even on a trial basis. So Lila abandoned that idea.

(The attempts at exercise were also wiping her out in- in _minutes_ , really. Sometimes even only a minute of moving fast was making Lila struggle to catch her breath. It was starting to get a _bit_ concerning.)

That didn't mean that Lila wasn't going to do anything with the Miraculous while Hawkmoth was gone. No, she wasn't going to put up with Duusu in return for _nothing_. Even if she wasn't allowed to send out amoks to fight Ladybug and Chat Noir, there was _so much more_ that she could do with the Peacock. It hadn't occurred to Lila before, but the amoks could look like _anything_ \- or, more importantly, like any _one_.

Maybe Marinette had finally shut up with trying to call out Lila's lies for the time being, but it never hurt to have some evidence on her side. She didn't _have_ to be transformed for her sentimonster to stick around- she had learned _that_ after several battles- so she could put up some poster backgrounds, make some sentimonsters that looked like the celebrities that she had claimed close connections with, and _ta-da_ , she would have bought herself a good year's worth of no questioning of her stories. Maybe she could even sneak into the school over the weekend with a Marinette-sentimonster and take photos of it breaking into Lila's locker or otherwise acting absolutely terrible. That _should_ be enough to get even Adrien to abandon Marinette's side, which. Well.

If she couldn't get her revenge on Ladybug while she was Pavona- as much as Lila hated to admit it, that was looking increasingly unlikely that they would defeat the superheroes any time soon- then at least Lila could get some revenge on Marinette for being such a pain in the butt.

Lila smirked to herself. That was _such_ a good idea, and she was glad that she had come up with it. She would have to brainstorm more to hammer out the details of what she would make "Marinette" do- maybe stealing from Lila's locker and then cornering Lila in the bathroom and yelling at her?- but it was _definitely_ something that she had to do while Hawkmoth was away.

Things were _really_ looking up, pieces the puzzle falling into place. And after feeling so crummy for the past several weeks, it was about time things went her way. With a little luck, the _ugh_ feeling from her cold would leave soon, and then everything would be perfect in Lila's world.

Or maybe not _perfect_ , since of course Ladybug would still be out and insufferably smug, but close enough.

The photos, Lila decided after a bit of thought, could wait until Saturday. Her mom was going to be gone all day, so Lila would have all morning to do her transformations, and she would have the rest of the week for her to gather up her posters and other props so that her pictures would turn out perfectly. And- making it even _more_ perfect- the class had been talking about getting together for a group picnic in the park on Saturday afternoon, so Lila could show off her photos right away. She could scope out the school, too, and figure out how she could get into the building on Sunday with her senti-Marinette without being noticed.

Once school let out on Thursday evening, Lila patted her pocket to make sure that she had her wallet and detoured off of her path home, towards the bus stop to head across the city to a poster store she had been to before. Her wallet was going to take a hit from the stop- posters weren't _cheap_ , which was annoying since really, anyone could point a camera and print a picture out- but her mom had given her more money on top of her allowance to buy hot drinks for her throat all week and she hadn't spent it because her classmates were bringing her hot tea, so at least she had gotten a bit extra to spend.

"Ooh, are you getting decorations for your room?" Duusu asked eagerly from her collar as Lila stepped inside the shop thirty minutes later, fully fed up with Paris traffic. "There's some pretty ones! Do you even have space on you walls? Or you could rotate stuff, maybe-"

Lila tried and failed not to sigh as she did her best to tune out her kwami. Honestly, as much as she didn't want to give up her powers, she _really_ couldn't wait to be rid of Duusu. _Clueless_ and _naive_ were both _excellent_ ways to describe the peacock kwami, and it was pretty irritating to deal with.

Seriously, after being with a supervillain for who-knew-how-long and then with Lila for several weeks, one would think that Duusu would actually get used to a less-than-honest way of thinking. Sure, it might also be annoying to have Duusu judging her outright all the time, but the _idiocy_...

Gritting her teeth, Lila prowled down the aisle that was most likely to have the posters she was looking for. Honestly, the idiocy was _worse_. Then she had to decide if she wanted to even _try_ to explain- which sounded annoyingly like justifying herself, which she didn't have to do- or just ignore Duusu's increasingly bewildered and off-base questions.

"Ooh! What about this one? It's a lovely flower field!"

Lila spared the flower field poster a glance before continuing to scour the shelves for the scenes she wanted. There were a couple specific city streets that would work perfectly, and then maybe some generic backstage scenes. If she could find some that were set inside a mansion or a palace then she could do some poses with sentimonster royalty. Since no one in her class had seen the inside of Prince Ali's castle or Buckingham Palace, it wouldn't matter if she couldn't get posters of the insides of those places.

Thankfully, the shop was well-stocked. Lila found everything she needed- she was going to get to take a _lot_ of pictures, her evidence was going to mean that people's trust in her would be absolutely unshakeable- and checked out, trying not to grimace as the price tag mounted up.

She _would_ just take the pictures and then return the posters, but apparently the store had a no-return policy when it came to getting a bunch of posters and then trying to bring them all back. It was annoying, but if she had to pay to keep her lies in place, then she would. It was worth it.

(Besides, she could always sell the posters online or something once she was done with them. It wouldn't be _all_ of her money back, but it would be some, and that was better than nothing.)

Lila tucked her posters deep in the bag that the shop provided- she didn't want to risk anyone she knew seeing her with the posters, and they were all too big for her school bag, even all rolled up in the poster tubes- and headed out, eager to get home. While she didn't exactly need to rush back to her apartment to work on homework- several of her classmates had been 'helping' her by sending her either the answers or pictures of most of the work required for the problems, so several hours of homework ended up taking about half an hour instead, just copying things over and scanning whatever reading Ms. Bustier had assigned- Lila didn't exactly feel like dealing with Paris rush hour.

Besides, the longer she was out with her posters, the higher the chance that someone would see her. Maybe most of the class wouldn't think anything of it- Lila could always lie and say that she was getting the posters for her mom, showing places that she had worked, since it wasn't like the outside of the tubes showed the pictures- but she preferred to _not_ have any trails at all, in case that brat Marinette tried to claim that she was in front of posters and _that_ was how she got the pictures. If one of the classmates saw her now and then heard that then...

Well, she was no Max, but Lila figured that the chances were at least 9/10 that they wouldn't think anything of it. But she didn't want to risk _anything_.

Not when she was so close to cementing her reputation for good.

* * *

Lila set up her room on Saturday as soon as her mom left for work, sacrificing her weekend lie-in. The posters came out and got unrolled, and Lila tacked them up around her room, one after the other. She set up some lamps to mimic the light sources in the photos- something she had learned to do after one of Marinette's none-too-subtle comments about the shadows not matching up during one of her video calls- and then set out changes of outfits for between pictures. She had spent the previous evening coming up with poses and figuring out what clothes she should wear with what setting and which celebrity, so all she had to do was follow her checklist- complete with reference photos- and it should go smooth as butter.

(She also had a bowl heaped with fruit for Duusu set out and ready, to recharge her kwami in between goes. Once she got going, she wasn't going to stop for _anything,_ and that included her kwami's annoying appetite.)

Duusu had watched the entire proceedings with his head tilted to the side, the picture of confusion. He had been incessantly asking questions at the start, but finally- _finally_ \- fell silent when Lila snapped at him to shut up already. She didn't need his input, as absolutely useless as it was. All she needed was his powers.

"Duusu, _transform me!_ "

Blue light flashed and Pavona smirked from her spot in the middle of the room. She hadn't transformed all week, and the feeling was even more amazing than she had remembered. She was powerful, she was fearless, she was invincible. Her confidence in her plans- well, _obviously_ they were foolproof, and she was a genius for coming up with them.

It was pretty obvious that being sick had been muting how incredible transforming felt, or maybe she had just been feeling so miserable that she hadn't been able to truly appreciate it.

(Pavona coughed a few times seconds later, then scowled. Seriously, couldn't her cold be _over_ yet?)

"All right, let's make a Jagged Stone!" Pavona announced to no one in particular, grabbing a button off of her bed. She had grabbed them from her mom's emergency sewing kit that morning, in case she couldn't recall the amoks once she was done with the sentimonster (after all, before now, they had all been purified by Ladybug) and had to simply smash the possessed item. With a grin, Pavona called up her power and the first sentimonster bubbled to life.

It was a _perfect_ replica of Jagged Stone, though the eyes were _perhaps_ a little blank. That was fine, though- the rock star was a little on the strange side anyway, a bit spacy and distractible. If he didn't seem 100% there and people could see that in the pictures at all, they would probably assume that he was just thinking about a new song that had popped into his mind or something.

"Detransform me," Pavona ordered as she strode forward, snagging senti-Jagged as she passed him and dragging him along with her. "Come on, we're taking some photos!"

"Pho-to," senti-Jagged said slowly, stumbling after her. Clearly it wasn't smart like an actual human, but that didn't matter. All she needed was his face. Lila shoved it into position, maneuvering its arms and face into a happy pose before hitting the timer button on the camera that she had set up and taking her position next to senti-Jagged.

"Look at the camera!" Lila demanded, pointing at the camera. She glanced to the side- good, it was listening, or maybe it was just coincidence- and then leaned close and beamed at the camera. One click, two, three photos, and then she could relax. "Okay, now a selfie!"

 _Click, click. Click, click._ Lila snapped the photos, one after another, then looked through them. There were a few that just looked a touch unnatural, but the rest were fine.

"Okay, we're done," Lila told senti-Jagged. "You're dismissed."

It didn't move. It hadn't understood.

Of _course_ it hadn't understood, that was dumb for her to even think for a moment that it might. Senti-Jagged was as dumb as bricks. Besides, _telling_ it to vanish obviously wasn't going to work. She had to use her powers to recall the feather somehow, unless she just wanted to stomp on the button.

She transformed, and then Pavona looked towards senti-Jagged again. She didn't have any more of an idea of what to do to recall the amok then she had had the first time, so she just stomped on the button and snagged the feather out of the air. Senti-Jagged let out a surprised shriek as it dissolved, but Pavona ignored it in favor of getting another feather out and ready.

Prince Ali was going to be next, Pavona had decided. Then it would be Clara Nightingale next, followed by Ladybug, then a couple other celebs that she had claimed connections with. One after the other, no problem at all.

Was it going to be a lot of work? Maybe. But it was _well_ worth it. And with every new character she made, they seemed to have more life to them. There was more of a spark in their eyes, they understood French- to some degree, at least- and their poses came completely naturally, and she had even been able to take a few short videos. That was pretty nice, but it _did_ mean that they seemed to recognize that they were going to stop existing before she stomped on their button and begged her not to make them go. That was a bit annoying, but it wasn't about to deter her at all. Their pleas fell on deaf ears as Pavona wiped them out of existence and reclaimed their feathers.

She didn't have time to cater to their whines or try to explain to them _why_ they couldn't stay, nor did she want to even bother with it. It was a waste of time.

After all, they were gone now. Why bother caring about their feelings? They were a tool, not a living being.

"And _done_ ," Pavona said happily once she had reclaimed the last of her feathers. She was feeling pretty drained and tired now, but that was hardly a surprise. She had gotten up earlier than she normally would on a Saturday to get everything ready, and then she had been going full-tilt ever since. She would have to _keep_ working, honestly- she had to go through the photos and pick out which were natural enough to keep- but the transforming and set-up and staging was all finished. "Detransform me."

Duusu spiraled free of the brooch, making a beeline for the remaining bit of fruit left in the bowl. Lila barely spared him a glance as she headed for her computer, eager to dive right in and see what she had. Another coughing fit gave her momentary pause, but Lila wasn't about to let that deter her for long.

Some photos had to be cropped to hide the exposed edges of posters because she hadn't _quite_ gotten the camera angle right, but that wasn't much of a problem. Others she cropped just to change things up and make the photos not _quite_ so similar. The videos turned out to be useless, unfortunately- listening to them back, it was _very_ obvious that there was outside noise from the street and from the neighbors above her- so they had to be benched until she could figure out how to edit that out. Or, more likely, until she had time to transform again and re-do those clips, hopefully while Bigfoot upstairs was out instead of stomping around.

For now, Lila had to get going or else she was going to be late meeting with the rest of the class.

As soon as her photos were loaded onto her phone, Lila snatched it up and stuffed it in her pocket, pushing herself to her feet and heading for the door with a spring in her step. She knew for a fact that Marinette was going to be there, so with any luck the photos would be enough to thoroughly ruin her day. Maybe they would be enough to start the process of ruining her friendships, too, since Marinette was hardly going to start believing Lila even with the photos and that would make her look pretty bad in her friends' eyes. That was going to be _great-_

Lila's progress was brought to an abrupt halt by a hacking cough before she reached the apartment door and she was forced to pause and lean heavily against the wall as a wave of lightheaded dizziness passed over her.

 _Ugh_. How was it that her cold was coming back, but _worse?_ She hadn't gotten any dizzy fits since the previous weekend, and certainly none as bad as that. Lila grimaced as the wave of dizziness and nausea passed, then pushed herself back up straight.

It didn't matter. Lila had her fabricated evidence in hand, and she wasn't about to let something as inconsequential as _germs_ stop her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> meant to post this yesterday, but got distracted writing 4,000+ words of a new one-shot...whoops.
> 
> As always, comments make my day!


	5. Lila: Part 4

"Oh my _god_ , you guys, you'll never guess what my mom did for me!" Lila announced as she arrived at the picnic just a little bit on the late side and, other than her phone and a hastily-made Thermos of tea, completely empty-handed. If anyone asked, she would just claim that she had _meant_ to make something, but she had overslept and not been able to start early enough to pull off what she had intended. "It was so sweet of her!"

Heads turned her way, and several of the other girls stepped closer like they were being drawn by a string. Rose was the first to speak up.

"What did she do, Lila?"

"She brought my old phone to a specialist so they could recover some of my old photos off of it- it got destroyed during one of my mission trips to South America and I lost all sorts of data!" Lila practically wilted at the 'memory'. "Thankfully my contacts were backed up in the cloud, but I lost all of my photos! All of those memories, gone! I thought that there was no way to get them back!"

Rose gasped in excitement. "But she got them recovered! That's so great!"

"Some were lost for good- most of them, actually. But I got some back and now they're on my phone _and_ on the cloud, just in case." Lila glanced around. "I don't know if- would anyone like to see them, maybe?"

Rose nodded at once, practically teleporting to Lila's side in her eagerness to see. Alya wasn't far behind, and then Mylène and Nino came behind her. Lila beamed, pulling out her phone and swiping to open up her photos. She had stuck in some landscape photos that she had snagged online to mix it up so that not _all_ of her photos were shots of her and famous people, but obviously the celeb shots were the star of the show.

"Oh, that's Prince Ali!" Rose said happily, half-hanging over Lila's arm to see the phone screen better. "You two definitely look close!"

"Yes, well, we've worked with each other several times," Lila told her. "So of course we're close! I took this picture maybe a year and a half ago? I was at his castle for two weeks while discussing all of the different types of charity work we were doing and ideas for going forward. It was _lovely_ there, really. The beds were so comfortable, and the food was _amazing!_ "

There was a chorus of 'that's so cool!'s and 'you're so lucky!'s. Lila beamed, happy with the attention, and dove into her prepared story, tying in a few of the few of stories that she had told before. More of their classmates gathered around, trying to get a glimpse of her phone. Lila held it up to show the photos off as she went, ever-thoughtful. One story turned into two, then ten, then a dozen as she flipped through the photos. It was a lot- normally she just did one story at a time, peppering them in where they were relevant- but she had been too sick to come up with many stories recently and of course the photos provided a _perfect_ opportunity do a bit of talking.

(Maybe it was a bit _too_ much talking, considering that she was still recovering from her illness and her throat was already sore and she was still feeling a bit faint every so often, but she was on a roll and needed to press her advantage while she had it. These photos were _gold_ , and she needed to milk them for all they were worth.)

"Oh, those shots of you and Ladybug are great!" Alya exclaimed once Lila swiped to the first of the Ladybug pictures. Even though it was just a Ladybug look-alike, Lila had found herself gritting her teeth as she forced herself to cozy up to the sentimonster's side. She hadn't given in to the urge to punch the sentimonster in the face, just as a bit of stress relief, but that had less to do with being nice and more to do with her being worried that she was going to lose control of the sentimonster and have it turn on her. "Those must have been pretty recent, right? Were they on your old phone, too?"

"Ah- no, those were just from yesterday afternoon," Lila fibbed quickly, trying not to cringe. She probably should have held off of putting the Ladybug pictures on her phone- those would _always_ be relevant, she could show them off some other time if she ever hit a lull in attention- but it was too late for that now. Maybe she could get a couple more posters and do another sentimonster session before Hawkmoth took the Miraculous back so that she would have more photo evidence in the future. "She was out on a run and saw me when I was on a walk to try to brainstorm ideas to help the global anti-pollution initiative with Prince Ali. Since we're friends, she decided to drop down and say hi! It was so nice of her."

"She must have been keeping a low profile," Alya commented, leaning in closer. "I didn't get any reports of superhero spottings yesterday, but I know they've been out before without people noticing! Did she help come up with any ideas?"

"No, she wanted to get going again before she got noticed and mobbed," Lila told her. "Which is understandable! She said she would think it over and get back to me if she came up with anything."

Alya nodded. "Yeah, that makes sense. I'm sure she'll come up with something, though! Considering how creative she is with Lucky Charms, I bet that she'll think up something cool."

Lila tried not to let her smile get too strained as she faked her enthusiasm. "Yeah! I mean, if it's anything _too_ out there, it might be hard to get people on board, but some out of the box ideas might just be what the world needs!"

"Would you mind sharing those photos on the Ladyblog?" Alya asked eagerly. "I always love adding good pictures of the superheroes, and those are _fantastic._ "

Trying not to smile _too_ obviously, Lila nodded. "Of course! That's fine." Honestly, the more people who saw it, the better. That way, if Ladybug decided to be a brat again and tried to call Lila out, it would be _far_ easier for Lila to claim that they had had a falling out and Ladybug was being an asshole about it and for that to actually be believed. "I'll send the photos to you right away, actually, before I forget."

Alya grinned, whipping out her phone eagerly. "Great! Lemme just- ah, I should probably think of an actual article or something to go along with the photos, huh? Uh- maybe something about how Ladybug isn't just saving the world from evil, but also from pollution? Obviously I'd say that you're the one doing most of the pollution work," she added hastily to Lila. "Or two superheroines- one saving the world from supervillains, the other saving the world from pollution? I like that better! And then I'll just mention the crossover, her helping you come up with ideas and you helping her behind the scenes with akuma attacks sometimes!"

Lila nodded, attaching the photos to an email and sending it off to Alya. "That sounds good! And if you want any more details, just ask!"

"I will, trust me!"

Ten minutes later, Lila's audience started getting restless, clearly done with story time. She wrapped up quickly, claiming that she didn't want to take up everyone's time and monopolize the attention and promising to show off the remainder of the photos at school. Some people stuck around to ask a few questions, but others wandered off. Lila wasn't bothered. After all, the stories would get around eventually.

Eventually, Lila got to step away to peruse the picnic table. She didn't pick anything up since she still wasn't feeling 100% after her earlier dizzy spell, and getting nauseous and barfing would bring her a sort of attention that she _didn't_ want, but it was a nice break from remembering all of her stories and playing her part.

The food spread looked pretty good- though Lila wrinkled her nose at an array of baked goods that had clearly come from Marinette's family's bakery- and she made a note of a few things that she wanted to try later, when she felt better. With one more glance around, Lila stepped away from the table and back towards the rest of her classmates. As she did, she nearly bumped into Marinette. The other girl's eyes narrowed at her but she didn't say anything, opting to simply walk past Lila instead.

 _Well_. That wouldn't do.

"You missed out on seeing my pictures earlier," Lila said, raising her voice just enough that Marinette wouldn't be able to miss it. "Which is a pity, really. There were some _really_ nice ones that my mom recovered off of my old phone. If you wanted, I could still show you a couple."

Marinette snorted. "So you've taken up Photoshop as a hobby, I take it?" she asked dryly. "And I think I'll pass on looking at the photos. If I wanted to see something that wasn't real, I'd go watch an action hero movie. That would at least be _enjoyable_."

Lila sniffed. "You're just so _certain_ that they're doctored. Do you know how jealous that makes you sound? It's not a very attractive look on you at all."

"Puh- _leeze_. There was a photo of me and Jagged Stone on the cover of _Metal Lord_ not even a year ago, and I've got _actual_ selfies of me and Clara Nightingale on my phone from when she was doing her music video. I don't need Photoshop." Marinette rolled her eyes, stepping further away from Lila. "Some of us _actually_ have the connections that you pretend to have. If anyone is jealous, it's you."

With that, she turned and left, heading across the park to join Alya and Nino and Adrien. Alya was still hunched over her phone- no doubt hastily getting a rough draft of her article done- but the others were just chatting and relaxing. The fact that Adrien was still clearly on Marinette's side was really annoying, but soon enough he wouldn't be. Not once Lila took some video of the senti-Marinette being a brat. Because it _would_ take video to persuade him, she knew that. Photos wouldn't be enough, not when he was already suspicious of her. She would probably have to wait a week or so to actually show anyone the video, space things out to make them more believable-

Lila's breath caught in her throat as another dizzy spell washed over her. All of a sudden, she wasn't so positive that it was a good idea to come out today. She _had_ just been recovering from a decently long sickness, and then she got up super early and had been pushing herself all day. Yeah, it had been nice to show off her photos right away, but maybe it would have been smarter to wait until Monday. Lila could have ridden out her dizzy spells at home, both the major ones and the smaller ones that had been plaguing her while she showed off her photos.

...maybe she could just sit down and she would be fine?

"Lila! Over here!" Rose called, almost as though she was reading Lila's mind. She waved and patted the bench next to her. "Max was about to start telling us about the changes he made to his game!"

Lila nearly groaned at the thought. Listening to Max meant listening to stats and graphics and coding nonsense that she really couldn't care less about. She avoided it when she could. But it also meant that she wouldn't have to talk, and if she tuned out and missed something and got asked about it, she could just claim that she had gotten lost on all of the technical details.

So really, it was practically perfect.

"What kinds of changes?" Lila asked, walking over and sitting on the fee bit of bench. "New villains?"

Max nodded, pushing his glasses back up on his nose. "That is some of it, yes. Having an ever-expanding cast of characters keeps it interesting and a challenge for those who have already played a lot and know how to defeat their opponents. There were some complaints that there were then too many rounds between the start and the boss villain, so I now have an option for people to select the number of akumas that they want to battle and _which_ akumas they get is randomized. I also have added difficulty levels, for those wanting to deviate from the standard game. After examining the akuma stats, I have identified some that are more or less challenging than average and so the non-normal difficulty selections have a more limited pool of opponents to choose from. I also added Mayura to the game. I considered putting in Pavona, too, but..."

"She could be the boss villain for easy mode," Rose suggested. "Since she's not as good of a fighter as Hawkmoth!"

Max considered that, nodding absently. "Yes, I could see that. I have different coding for different fight levels already, so I could use the one I developed for the lowest akumas."

"The _lowest_ akumas?" Lila asked, incredulous. "She- _surely_ she's better than the _lowest_ akumas, right? When she was out, she wasn't exactly just getting tossed to the side."

There was a long pause. Lila blinked, looking around.

Surely everyone could admit that Pavona wasn't _completely_ useless on the battlefield, right? They had eyes, even if they were ridiculously biased towards the superheroes. There had been times when Pavona had been more than holding her own.

(Well. Times when she hadn't been failing spectacularly, at least, and mostly because the heroes were outnumbered, but she was choosing to ignore that.)

"I mean, I guess she's a better fighter than that giant baby," Alix offered after a long moment. "Not that that's _hard_ , exactly. But as far as game context goes, it doesn't really make sense for the final boss to be as easy or easier than the akumas that came before it."

Max nodded, jotting that down. "That's a good point! I might make her a slight bit more of a threat than she actually is in real life, just for the game's sake. Though she _does_ have the sentimonster thing going for her- maybe I can keep her fight level the same, but just have a couple different sentimonsters that she'll get paired with. That'll be the bit making the boss battle harder."

"That was a good point about how Pavona shouldn't be easier than the akumas in the game, Lila!" Rose chirped, beaming at her. "That'll definitely help improve the game!"

"Yeah, no problem," Lila managed, hoping that she didn't sound like she was talking through gritted teeth. She steadied herself against the table as her vision blurred out again for a moment, her mind going dizzy with it. "I'm always happy to help!"

"I think the problem that I'm facing then is coding so that Pavona and the sentimonster work together," Max said, tapping his pencil against the spine of his notebook. "And the same for the challenge mode, I think. It would have Hawkmoth _and_ Mayura as the final boss, and they would work together. For that, some of the later levels could have randomized akuma-sentimonster pairings!"

"Ooh, good idea!"

"Nice!"

Lila tuned out as the conversation wandered off into more details of the game, improvements that could be made to the akuma powers to make them more flexible and not so fixed. Max eventually wandered off into a discussion- or a monologue, really, even while checked out Lila couldn't help but note that no one else was contributing much anything to the discussion- about coding specifics, and Lila tried not to sigh.

 _Boring. Boring, boring, boring_.

* * *

Even after sitting and relaxing for nearly half an hour, Lila still had absolutely no appetite. In fact, the mere thought of eating much anything was making her feel a bit ill, which was a bit concerning.

And yet she found herself staring down at a full plate of food in her lap.

To her own credit, she _had_ tried to get out of eating anything, claiming that she had woken up late and eaten breakfast late and therefore didn't have an appetite, and besides her mom hadn't remembered to buy the things she needed to make something to bring and she would feel bad about taking food when she hadn't brought any. But her classmates had insisted that it was fine, that no one blamed her for not being able to bring anything, and that _really_ , couldn't she eat just a little? So Lila had been pretty much forced to relent and load up her plate.

Maybe she could have let on that she had a bit of lingering nausea from her illness, but she had (for once) not wanted any more attention on her. She had been completely in charge of the narrative earlier, keeping the focus and gossip on what she _wanted_ her classmates to pay attention to, and having the talk about her turn from her celebrity connections to her mysterious illness would be not exactly ideal. An illness could push the focus on her proof to the backs of their minds, easily forgotten about given some time, and she was _not_ about to let a little cold do that.

Lila was made of stronger stuff than that, she _knew_ she was. After all, she was a supervillain. Things weren't going to be _easy_.

But it was still frustrating that the challenge was coming from something as _everyday_ as a stupid _cold_.

(She should have just left it at _I ate breakfast late and so I'm not very hungry_ and then maybe she could have gotten away with just taking a little fruit and nothing else. The comment about not having brought anything, in retrospect, made the breakfast thing sound like a flimsy excuse for not eating.)

Hopefully she would feel better again soon. It was just so _stupid_ that she had been feeling so great, and then all of a sudden, she was feeling worse than she had before. Sure, she had been able to milk her cold for all it was worth as far as homework went, but much longer and the teachers wouldn't turn a blind eye to that anymore. And sure, she had gotten out of actually doing anything in gym while she was sick, but she could do that just as easily with a claim that her arthritis was acting up or that she had rolled her ankle the previous day.

(There was also the issue of what she could possibly do if someone brought concerns to their teachers and they insisted on calling Lila's mom. She couldn't let that happen, or else all of her hard work would be for nothing.

Maybe she could spread the lie that her mom was already on top of it and taking her in to the doctor's office for a checkup. If the teachers knew that Mrs. Rossi was already aware of Lila's health problem, then perhaps they would be less inclined to reach out as well.)

"Aren't you hungry, Lila?" Rose asked anxiously, and Lila startled out of her thoughts. She had been staring at her plate without eating anything for too long, clearly. "You've just been pushing your food around and not eating anything."

"Ah, well, I _did_ have a late breakfast," Lila managed, doing her best to make her excuses sound confident, even as another wave of dizziness passed over her. Was it just her imagination, or were they getting more frequent? "I must have eaten more than I thought then, so I'm not very hungry yet. I- maybe I'll just set my plate away to eat later. I just couldn't resist taking some food, it all looked so good."

"Oh, okay," Rose agreed after a moment's pause. "It's too bad we don't have a heating lamp or something to keep the food warm and fresh for you! Some of it won't be as good cold."

Lila flashed her a smile. "Thanks for the concern, but I'm sure it will still be good! And if not- well, the next time we have a picnic, I'll be sure to wake up earlier or not eat as much breakfast."

"We'll have to do this again soon, then!"

Lila smiled and nodded. "That sounds fun! It'll be a good way to keep up with everyone over the summer- well, at least if I'm still in the country and not traveling. I don't know what my mom's plans are yet."

Everyone nodded, letting out little murmurs of understanding.

"Hopefully you'll get to go some cool places!" Mylène piped up. "I mean, I hope you'll be around for part of the summer so that you can go on all of the group activities like picnics and pool trips, but I know how important it is for you to get to travel and meet people who can help out with your charities and environmental work and everything!"

Lila forced another smile in the direction where- well, she could _mostly_ see Mylène between the spots that had momentarily taken over her vision. She blinked, and her vision cleared. "Yeah, it would be nice to get to hang out and be a normal kid for a bit, but I also want to see some of my friends from other places in person again! I've been keeping in touch by email and video call, of course, but it's just not the same."

"The downside to traveling," Mylène agreed. "I've made friends while traveling before- average people, not princes and whatnot- but I never end up staying in touch with them for that long once I leave. Our emails just end up tapering off."

Several of the others nodded in agreement. Lila almost did, too- after all, she always let communications with her former classmates taper off and end after a few months after she had to move or switch schools- before she caught herself.

 _Right_. No talking about her _real_ life experiences, or else people would start picking up on the inconsistencies and the ways that Lila's _real_ life didn't line up with the other stories that she had told.

The conversation slowly turned to the kinds of friendships other people had made while on vacation with their families and how long they kept communicating once they had left, and Lila tuned it out in favor of trying to force down a few bites of food. There were a couple things that weren't overly sweet or spicy that didn't make her stomach want to _completely_ turn itself inside out, so Lila nibbled on them while she pretended to listen to her classmates blather on about completely non-impressive people who they had met.

"Lila, if you aren't hungry yet, you don't _have_ to eat," Rose said suddenly, cutting herself off mid-sentence. She glanced over at the picnic table, then perked up. "Hey, the container I brought my salad in is empty! You could just put your food in that and bring it home to eat later if you wanted!"

"That's so kind of you, Rose!" Lila managed. Ugh, forcing herself to eat _anything_ had clearly been a bad choice. She had thought that she would be able to handle a few bites, but she was feeling more nauseous than ever. She didn't want to let that on, though. She _wouldn't_. She couldn't distract from her own stories and photos by being _ill_. "That sounds like a great idea. I don't want the food I took to have to go to waste. I-" she cut herself off as her stomach rolled again.

Maybe talking right now wasn't the best idea.

"Let's go get it, then!" Rose chirped, popping up out of her seat. "And you can grab anything you want to eat later from the table, too, while we're doing that. I know no one's going to mind if you take stuff to go!"

Lila pushed herself to her feet to follow Rose, doing her best to act as though everything was normal as she swung her legs over the bench and started walking. Her vision had almost completely fuzzed out as soon as she got up, but she couldn't let that stop her. It would clear up soon enough, after all. It always had before.

She took one step, then another, then a third, forcing them even and casual. On the fourth, Lila felt herself wobble, suddenly both dizzy _and_ weak.

And on the fifth step, everything went black.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry for the wait! I don't even have a decent excuse... NaNo started, and I got distracted with writing instead of posting, I guess.
> 
> As always, comments make my day! :)


	6. Marinette: Part 1

Marinette was starting to think that Hawkmoth had officially gone around the bend.

For months after the Miracle Queen attack, Hawkmoth and Mayura had hammered at the superheroes, both of them plus the regular akuma and a sentimonster showing up to the battles. The superheroes had struggled to adapt, sacrificing their free time and fun activities to find and train new allies to help them as needed and doubling up on Miraculous almost as often as not to have access to more powers. They had been managing- sometimes only by the skin of their teeth- but it was taking a _lot_ of effort.

And then, all of a sudden, Mayura vanished, and Pavona took her place next to Hawkmoth.

The change by itself would have been odd enough even if Pavona was an equally good fighter as Mayura. But Pavona was a poor fighter and even worse strategist. Her sentimonsters were easier to fight than Mayura's, and her outfit- while fancy- was a piece of cake to grab onto, either to yank her backward (or sideways) out of an attack or to fling her several blocks away, away from the fight and out of their hair for several minutes while the supervillain picked herself back up and straightened her outfit out.

(The Ladyblog had had an absolute field day with how ridiculous and ill-suited for fighting Pavona's outfit was. Marinette had worried that it would make Pavona reconsider her transformation and choose something more practical, but either the supervillain was unaware of the Ladyblog or was just so generally inept that she wasn't willing to sacrifice fashion for practicality.)

In most cases, Marinette would have assumed that Pavona had stolen the Miraculous from Mayura, and that was the reason for the change. But it was obvious that Pavona wouldn't have been able to overpower Mayura to start with, and Hawkmoth had clearly been anticipating the change. Right now, her assumption was that something had happened to Mayura- maybe she had died in an accident or something, she didn't know- and Pavona was Hawkmoth's only choice for an ally.

To be honest, Marinette was of the opinion that Hawkmoth would have been better off fighting on his own. Pavona only seemed to get in the way, and then she had to be saved before the superheroes could grab for her Miraculous. Pavona hadn't come out on the battlefield again after one particularly idiotic blunder, but considering that Mayura hadn't returned and the Peacock's sentimonsters were still showing up, it was more than likely that Pavona was just sulking in a lair somewhere for a bit before trying battlefield fighting again.

And now, after weeks- no, _months_ \- of Hawkmoth going after the superheroes with increased ferocity, the attacks had suddenly stopped. There had been _nothing_ for the past four days.

Not that Marinette was complaining! Being able to attend school without having to dash out was _really_ nice. It was just odd, that was all.

"Oh, Lila's looking like she might be finally getting better! I'm glad, she was looking so ill at the end of last week!"

Marinette blinked, pulling herself out of her thoughts and glancing over at Alya. "Hm?"

Alya nodded towards the front of the classroom, where Lila was straggling across the front of the classroom. "Lila caught a cold or something last week and she was _so_ exhausted. She couldn't rest very well, since she's been pushing herself to get all of this work for her charities done before this deadline and there's been, like, _so_ many emergencies that she's had to deal with all in a row. We've all been trying to help out so she won't get behind, but she's really been struggling. So I'm glad that she's feeling at least a little better now!"

For once, it was easy not to sigh in exasperation. Instead, Marinette frowned, glancing towards Lila as she headed for the back of the classroom.

The charities were a lie, of course. They always had been and always would be. Lila was too selfish and self-centered to even _think_ about spending her time and money helping others. But the lie definitely got Lila a lot of (undeserved) admiration and offers for help. Mysteriously, Lila could never use the help with the charity directly- Marinette hadn't bothered to hear her excuses for that- but she _could_ use the help when it came to things like homework. Normally, Marinette would assume that Lila had just wanted her classmates to offer to do all of her homework because she felt a little under the weather.

This time, though, Marinette _had_ noticed that Lila seemed a bit under the weather, and it hadn't seemed faked. In fact, it had been pretty obvious once she looked a little closer that Lila had applied makeup to hide how bad she was feeling. And _that_ was strange.

Sure, Lila seemed to have made a little bit of a recovery, but Marinette couldn't help but feel a bit curious about the whole situation. Downplaying her troubles wasn't Lila's style at all, and Marinette had to wonder what was going on. Because something _had_ to be going on, unless Lila had gotten a personality transplant overnight.

(Considering that she was still lying about her charity work, Marinette doubted that.)

"I wonder if there's something going around," Adrien commented quietly to Marinette as Alya and Nino broke off into their own little conversation. "Nathalie was sick a couple weeks ago, and I've never seen her so drained. She's been getting better, but she still gets these little relapses sometimes." He glanced towards the back of the classroom, his brow furrowed. "Maybe Lila picked it up at one of the photoshoots or something."

"I hope it doesn't spread, then," Marinette said. She chanced a glance back at Lila, who was clearly half-heartedly engaging in conversation with a few of their classmates. "Being tired and miserable for over a week sounds _miserable_."

Miserable, and not very safe. Marinette had had to be Ladybug when she had a bit of a cold more than one time, with a stuffed nose and a sore throat, and that had been bad enough. It hadn't affected her fighting that much, she thought, but combine that with how being tired during late night and early-morning fights affected her...

"She probably shouldn't have been coming to school," Adrien added after a moment. "It's a bit odd that most of the time she's so eager to skip, but the _one_ time when she actually has a legitimate excuse to stay home, she doesn't."

Marinette nodded, glancing backwards again. "Yeah, I was thinking the same thing."

* * *

The lack of akumas continued for the rest of the week, and Marinette got to get caught up with- well, _everything_ \- for the first time in _ages_. She worried that Hawkmoth was planning something, of course, but there wasn't really much that she and Chat Noir could do about it besides patrolling every evening in search of trouble.

Well, patrolling and going over what little information they had about the Miraculous powers and potions, comparing notes about what Master Fu had taught them. Thankfully she had gotten copies of pretty much all of Master Fu's translations before he was caught, but she hadn't had the chance to go through all of them and truly figure out the extent of the information at her fingertips. She and Chat Noir had been finding hidden crannies- ones where they wouldn't get spotted and where they couldn't be overheard or snuck up on- and going over the notes, puzzling over cryptic clues and tossing ideas for interpretations back and forth. Maybe it was a nice change of pace from battling akumas ( _and_ it was definitely something that they had to do anyway), but it was also difficult and frustrating and slow-going. Things had to be interpreted and then sorted into some semblance of order so that they would be able to find the notes again when they needed them.

So by the time Saturday rolled around, marking a full week without the barest whisper of an akuma, Marinette was more than happy to set her schoolwork and the Miraculous notes aside (the latter locked up in a box that was both secure and hidden), bake a batch of cookies, and package them up with some rejected pastries from the bakery to bring to their class picnic at the park. It sounded like a great opportunity to relax and focus on something else for a change.

Their classmates trickled in, coming in pairs and trios, laden with food. Thankfully it looked like people had brought dishes instead of just treats this time, so they would have a proper meal instead of just sugar, sugar, and more sugar. It was a far cry from their first class picnic, where almost all of them ended up feeling a bit ill from the number of sweets that they had eaten.

Rose, bless her, had even brought salad. She had put in a fair amount of work, clearly, tossing in more veggies and croutons and bringing a container of homemade dressing to make it more interesting.

Everyone milled around, talking and relaxing in the warm sun. Marinette wandered between her classmates, chatting with pretty much everyone before gradually circling back around to hang with Alya, Nino, and Adrien again. Maybe she got to hang out with them most often, just by virtue of where they sat in class, but they were also her best friends. They could talk for forever about nothing in particular, and it was nice to have that.

Ten minutes after the bulk of their class had arrived, Lila finally showed up. And in typical Lila fashion, of _course_ she had to make her entrance loud.

"Oh my _god_ , you guys, you'll never guess what my mom did for me! It was so sweet of her!"

"Oh, what _now?_ " Marinette grumbled as people started to flock towards Lila as though they were being drawn by a magnet. "Can't we go _one day_ without her making up some ridiculous story to tell?"

"I'll go listen in," Adrien volunteered, placing one hand on her shoulder. "Just to see what she's up to. If you want to, uh..."

"I'll go organize things on the picnic table so that I don't have to listen to her," Marinette offered, picking up what he was going to say. It was obvious to anyone with eyes (and critical thinking skills) that listening to Lila blather on made Marinette's blood pressure rocket up. "And then, uh, do some cloud-watching?"

Adrien snorted. "Honestly, that sounds _way_ more appealing than listening to Lila. Anything is, really, but..." He glanced towards the growing group around Lila. "I'd rather not have to hear about what Lila was saying and showing off secondhand, not when everyone believes everything she says."

Before Marinette could agree, Adrien had darted off, lingering on the edges of the group. He blended in pretty naturally, clearly going for a 'just-here-because-Nino-is' look and succeeding fairly well. Before anyone could notice that she wasn't joining the rest of the group, Marinette wandered off to rearrange the table and make it not _quite_ so chaotic. Since Lila seemed to be settling in for a long story-telling session, Marinette took her sweet time in surveying everything that people had brought (Lila, she couldn't help but notice, had opted not to contribute) and figuring out the best way to arrange them. Shapes of containers had to be taken into consideration, of course, and then similar things- the salads, the chips- could be put together.

It made the table _much_ neater and meant that nothing was in danger of falling off anymore.

Lila was still going strong with her stories, so Marinette turned her attention skyward for all of a minute (cloud-watching, it turned out, was not particularly interesting for an extended period of time) and then down to her phone. Finally, _finally,_ Lila stopped talking and everyone broke up into their little friend groups. Marinette headed over to Adrien's side at once, something that was made much easier by the fact that Alya and Nino were still talking to Lila.

"So what's the latest nonsense?"

Adrien startled for a moment, then relaxed once he realized that it was Marinette next to him. "Oh, _gosh_. I don't know _how_ , but Lila's come up with pictures to go along with her stories. She has selfies with Jagged Stone, Clara Nightingale, Prince Ali, Ladybug..."

"She- _what?_ " For once, Marinette was caught completely off guard. "She has _photos?_ But none of those stories are true!"

"My guess is Photoshop. That, or she wanted to go low-tech, posters and life-sized print-outs." Adrien made a face, glancing around as he did to make sure that they weren't being overheard. "I don't know why she went all-in like that all of a sudden. Like, it didn't seem as though people were believing her any less than they were when she first showed up."

"Maybe she just wanted to head off that possibility before anyone caught on." Which was _annoying_ , really. Marinette had just been about ready to try for another round of pointing out inconsistencies in Lila's stories to Alya, abet a more _subtle_ round, and now that Lila had "evidence" to back up her claims...

Well, that made things a _lot_ more difficult. She would have to abandon subtlety altogether and do something _much_ more direct, like calling up Jagged Stone and having him come in or somehow approaching Lila as Ladybug when Alya was nearby and calling her out for the Photoshop.

She _really_ should have just nipped the entire problem in the bud when Lila first showed up and gone to Alya's apartment to ask about the video of her "best friend" on the same day that it was posted, but it was a little too late to do that now.

"It makes me wonder if she's setting up to do something bigger," Adrien murmured, keeping his voice low. Maybe none of their classmates were lingering close by, but they didn't want to be overheard. "Then she would want to have a solid base. If she validates all of her previous lies, then she can tell a bigger one and not run as big of a risk of people doubting her."

Marinette nodded. Yeah, she was afraid of that, too. She also wouldn't be surprised if Lila decided to make up something about her to get rid of the dissenting voice for once and for all. If she tried, though, Marinette was ready.

There was a lock on her school bag, and another on her locker. Tikki had been told to keep an eye out and to destroy anything that Lila tried to plant. Marinette had even bought a recorder, in case she ever found herself alone with Lila and no witnesses again.

Of course, Lila might very well decide to take the approach of making Marinette look like the bad guy by bringing attention to the fact that she didn't believe any of Lila's stories, and then try to alienate her friends that way. Marinette wouldn't let that happen- she'd just use her connections to discredit Lila if it got that bad- but it wouldn't be particularly pleasant, either.

"Maybe she wants to skip again and the teachers are starting to doubt her," Marinette suggested, keeping her voice just as quiet as Adrien's. "So she's going more indirect this time by showing off her pictures to classmates but not the teacher- except no, it would make more sense than to show the photos off at school. Then she wouldn't have to depend on the teachers overhearing classmates _just happening_ to mention the photos."

"True. Which suggests that whatever she's planning, it's more important that our classmates all believe her." Adrien sighed. "I miss the days before Lila showed up. I didn't feel like I had to keep an ear open to what was going on and what was being talked about all the time."

Marinette nodded. Yeah, things had been a _lot_ more simple before Lila returned. Maybe she still had to deal with Chloe's nonsense, but at least Chloe hadn't been trying to frame her for things, just make her life difficult in typical bully fashion.

"I guess we'll find out what she's up to soon enough," Marinette said with a sigh. She wasn't looking forward to it. "I almost wish I could see the photos without Lila there. I bet there's _something_ off about them that I'd be able to point out, but she's hardly going to hand over her phone and let me pick them apart."

Adrien perked up. "Oh! Lila sent her Ladybug photos to Alya to post on the Ladyblog. Maybe it's not _all_ of the photos, but you could at least look over those ones."

Marinette grinned. That was a start, at least. Of course, she would have to be _really_ careful when bringing up any problems with the photos because otherwise she wouldn't even get her friends to actually _look_ at the issue before they jumped down her throat about how she was being _so_ mean doubting poor Lila, but maybe she could pose any concerns as a question or something.

"Hey, Marinette, come check this out!"

"I'll wait here and if Nino and Alya got anything more out of Lila once they finish chatting with her," Adrien said when Marinette hesitated to respond, not fully willing to give up their discussion so early. He nudged her towards Max. "There'll be plenty of time to try to figure out what Lila's up to later."

Marinette nodded, stepping away from Adrien and heading across the grass towards Max. He was grinning, looking eager about something.

"I would love some feedback on some of my proposed designs for the akuma villains that I'll be rolling out as part of my upcoming game update," Max told Marinette as she drew closer. He pulled a folder out of his bag and opened it, pulling out a sheath of papers. "Both the villain costume design and the powers, really. I want to make them a bit less, ah, one-dimensional, I suppose. Less predictable. I had some ideas, but would definitely be open to any improvements before I code them all in."

Marinette perked up. Oh, _that_ sounded interesting, and something that sounded _loads_ more interesting than discussing Lila and her nonsense. "Sure! How many akumas are you thinking of adding?"

"I thought ten to fifteen in the next release, then maybe do regular releases after that on a more regular basis with five or so akumas per release, just to keep things fresh." Max adjusted his glasses, angling the paper stack so that Marinette could see the top design. "Of course, how long I can do that for depends on Hawkmoth making new akumas and not simply recycling powers over and over, but at the moment I have quite a list of supervillains that I could use."

"That sounds like a lot of work, but _very_ cool," Marinette told him, accepting the top paper. She scanned the design, grinning when she noticed how well Max had done at getting the details right. "This is so cool! Was it hard getting all of the details?"

"Nathaniel assisted with the character modeling," Max told her, shuffling around so he could stand next to her and see the page as well. "Which really helped bring the characters to life."

"It's really fantastic!" Marinette glanced through the next few papers, impressed. It was a _real_ step up from Max's original character designs, which had been detailed enough for people to be able to identify the characters but nowhere _near_ this quality. He had focused less on the design and more on the coding for the actual play. "Have the old characters gotten the same design upgrade?"

"Yes, that was what the last update was. I wanted to make sure that everything was perfect and there wouldn't be any mismatch between the old characters and the new ones." Max shuffled a step closer. "So, what do you think about this character?"

* * *

Ten minutes of character review later, Marinette left Max scribbling down notes in the margins of his character pages and headed back across the park to where her friends were hanging out. Halfway there, she was stopped in her tracks by the sound of Lila's voice, loud and pointed and _annoying_.

"You missed out on seeing my pictures earlier," Lila said loudly, smugness coming across loud and clear in her voice. "Which is a pity, really. There were some really nice ones that my mom recovered off of my old phone. If you wanted, I could still show you a couple."

Marinette snorted at that. _As if._ "So you've taken up Photoshop as a hobby, I take it?" she asked, thoroughly unimpressed. "And I think I'll pass on looking at the photos. If I wanted to see something that wasn't real, I'd go watch an action hero movie. That would at least be enjoyable."

"You're just so certain that they're doctored," Lila sniffed, still insufferably smug. "Do you know how jealous that makes you sound? It's not a very attractive look on you at all."

Marinette had to roll her eyes at that. _Jealous?_ Why on earth would she be jealous of _Lila?_ "Puh-leeze. There was a photo of me and Jagged Stone on the cover of Metal Lord not even a year ago, and I've got actual selfies of me and Clara Nightingale on my phone from when she was doing her music video. I don't need Photoshop. Some of us actually have the connections that you pretend to have. If anyone is jealous, it's you."

With that, she turned on her heel and left before Lila could say anything else, continuing her journey towards Alya and Nino and Adrien. Alya was busily tapping away on her phone, clearly in _Ladyblog article_ mode.

She would probably have the photos and whatever article she was writing up done by the evening and posted with the photos, and then Marinette could look at them. With any luck, there would be something obvious wrong with them, and maybe- maybe she could post under an anonymous name and bring up the fact that the photos were clearly faked then?

"Max sure looks serious about something," Adrien commented as Marinette returned, settling down on the grass between him and Alya. "I don't know anyone else who would bring a file folder to a picnic- well, anyone else our age, at least."

"He's gearing up to start work on a new release for his video game," Marinette told him. She was _really_ excited to see it, actually. Hopefully she would actually have the time to play. "Or, well, he's started work, but he wanted to get some input on how to make it better. He has _twenty_ new akumas lined up to create, and they all look fantastic!"

Adrien perked up. "Oh, cool! I saw that the graphics took a _huge_ leap forward with the last release, which was really nice. Before, it was very, ah..." He tipped his head to one side, considering. "Very early-game-y? But now the graphics match the coding, which is nice. I know there was a huge spike in interest once that upgrade came through."

"As there should be!" There had been several akuma-and-superhero-themed games that had come out since she and Chat Noir hit the scene, but in Marinette's (completely unbiased) opinion, Max's was one of the best. "We were talking about the powers that the akumas get and how he's working on making them a little more realistic and less predictable. Thankfully he doesn't have to puzzle it out through trial and error for each akuma. Or, well, at least he really only had to do a bunch of puzzling for the first one, and then each one after that only needs a few small tweaks here and there."

"I can't wait for that to come out. Did Max say when he's expecting to have that ready to roll out?"

Marinette shook her head. She had asked too, but Max had said that there were _way_ too many variables to promise anything yet. "I think he's still early on enough in the process that it's impossible to predict. Everything could go really smoothly..."

"...or the code could tie itself into knots and take weeks to find the issue," Adrien finished. "Ah, I suppose I could be patient."

"I wonder if Max would be interested in giving out some preview pictures before everything is ready to go," Nino chimed in. "I know Alya's mentioned his game on the Ladyblog before, but it never hurts to drum up some more interest. Right, babe?"

He got a vague grunt in response.

"Babe?"

"I think she's a bit focused at the moment," Adrien said with a laugh when Alya didn't respond again. "We'll bug her later. I think Max's game is a pretty cool thing to put on the Ladyblog."

"Though not as cool as Lila!" Nino exclaimed. "I mean, I guess her friendship with Ladybug is old news now, but Ladybug doesn't pose with civilians _that_ often, not unless there's an event or something. And the pictures- Marinette, you missed that! Lila's mom got a specialist to recover a bunch of her photos from off of her old phone that got destroyed, and she was showing everyone. It was cool to get to see the inside of Prince Ali's palace! Like, there weren't a ton of pictures of the inside, just what we could see in the background of her photos with him, but still!"

"Hm," Marinette said, completely noncommittal. "Pity. I had to make sure that none of the food was going to fall off of the picnic table. It kind of looked like Kim might have arranged it last- there was a _really_ precarious pile of stuff. One pan was hanging halfway off of the table and the only reason why it hadn't fallen yet was because something else was piled on top of the portion that _was_ actually on the table."

Adrien laughed. "That sounds like Kim. And yet there was plenty of space on the table, it seems? Nothing is about to fall off now."

"Yeah, it was just that dishes were piled every which way and there were a lot of oddly-shaped gaps between..." Marinette trailed off, squinting across the park. Lila was headed towards Rose and Max and Juleka, but something seemed... off. She didn't seem entirely steady on her feet for a moment, half-stumbling before catching herself and continuing.

 _Huh._ Was Lila still sick? She had seemed mostly fine at school on Friday, and for most of the rest of the week, too. Marinette _would_ have guessed that Lila was just trying to get attention again, except that stumble was... _muted_. Almost like Lila was trying to hide it.

...maybe she just didn't want to take attention away from her faked photos? The attention from that was sure to be better than any attention that she could get from being sick, even if Lila had clearly enjoyed the attention that she had gotten during her- what? One, two, maybe three weeks of being sick?

That... that was a _long_ time to be sick.

Marinette kept watching Lila as she sat down, almost immediately joining in the conversation. She seemed fine now, but Marinette was _positive_ that she hadn't imagined that stumble.

"-lots of tasty dishes," Nino was saying, though Marinette had largely tuned him out. "A lot of things that I want to try. The pastries you brought look great- and did you see the quiches that Juleka brought? I heard she made them herself!"

He didn't get a response. Marinette was too busy watching Lila.

She had the feeling that _something_ was off, and she didn't want to let her guard down until she figured out _what_.

Hawkmoth had been quiet lately. Lila had gotten photos that were either photoshopped or had been made in some other way. Maybe it was a stretch to say that the two were related, but there was a niggling feeling in Marinette's gut that there was _some_ sort of connection.

Marinette had long since learned that her gut was usually not a great thing to ignore. If she sensed that something was wrong, she needed to _investigate_. Just sitting back and waiting for things to resolve themselves or for problems to show up wasn't enough, not anymore.

"You guys? The quiches?"

Marinette startled, pulling her gaze away from Lila and back towards Nino. _Right_. Investigating was important, but so was _not_ being obvious about it. If Lila caught her staring, or one of her other classmates did, then Lila would no doubt go out of her way to be even more sneaky about whatever it was that she was up to.

That was fine. Marinette could hold a conversation and watch Lila unobtrusively at the same time. So she did. And what she noticed...

Well, Lila was _definitely_ still sick. She had looked positively green as she picked up food from the table (following what _might_ have been either an attempt to make people feel like they had to rush to assure her that she could take all the food she wanted _or_ a stab at getting out of eating that backfired spectacularly- Marinette suspected that it was meant to be the latter) and not entirely steady on her feet as she headed back to the bench that she had been sitting on. She hadn't eaten until one of the other girls commented on it, instead just pushing her food around her plate, and, if Marinette's eyes were serving her correctly, Lila seemed to occasionally be swaying in place. Which... wasn't normal.

If it weren't for the faked photos, Marinette would say that Lila was just ill and wasn't up to- well, wasn't up to being _up to something_. But clearly she had had enough energy to put in the work to create the photos.

Unless- well, there was a possibility that Lila had been working on those photos gradually, over the course of several weeks, and just finished them recently. Several weeks of Photoshop work logically made more sense than a day or two, _unless_ Hawkmoth was involved. Somehow.

...it wasn't a _completely_ illogical thought, right? She was pretty sure that Lila had worked willingly with Hawkmoth before. She had been Akumatized and looked just like normal, at least for a bit. So it wasn't _impossible_.

...but then how did the cold fit in? And why on _earth_ would Hawkmoth bother giving someone photoshopping powers?

Across the way, Lila swayed in her seat again. She was looking rather pale now, and Marinette wondered why she hadn't just gone home. It would have been easy enough for Lila to claim that she had just gotten an email requesting an urgent Skype meeting about pollution or something and then she could have left.

"Just like Mom and Nathalie," Adrien murmured, pulling her out of her thoughts. "That's so strange."

"Hmm?" Marinette blinked over at him, puzzled. "Who is?"

"Lila." Adrien tipped his head towards Lila, who was pushing herself to her feet to follow Rose. "I think I might have mentioned it once before. Nathalie was really ill just like Lila. She was all tired and ill and dizzy for the _longest_ time before she started getting better, and then there were sometimes off days where she seemed just as sick as she had been before. Mom was like that too before she vanished. And I've never heard of a cold before that acted like that."

"Me either." Not that there _weren't_ illnesses that behaved that way. They just weren't colds. Not an average, run-of-the-mill cold, anyway. "Nathalie got better though, right? So if Lila caught whatever she had- oh my _god!_ "

Across the park, Lila had stumbled and then simply _collapsed,_ hitting the ground hard enough- and in an awkward enough position- that it was pretty obvious that it was 100% not at all faked.

" _LILA!"_ Rose shrieked, dashing back to her side. "Oh my _god_ , can you hear me? Are you okay? What- what do we _do?_ "

"Rose, take a deep breath," Marinette called, already shoving herself to her feet. She had gotten first aid training several months prior, just in case she ever needed it as Ladybug, and- well, she was pretty positive that she was the only one in the class with the training, which meant that she needed to take charge. No matter how much she disliked Lila- or how suspicious she was that Lila was up to something- she had to do the right thing. "Juleka, help Rose roll Lila onto her back so that she isn't all crumpled up like that. Alya, call for an ambulance."

"On it!"

Marinette dashed over as Rose and Juleka got Lila into a more comfortable position on the ground. Lila's skin was white as a sheet against her hair, so far beyond pale that it was _really_ concerning.

At least she was breathing. Marinette could tell as much as she skidded to a stop by Lila's side.

Rose was practically in tears. "Is she going to be okay?"

"She's breathing, so she should be fine." As long as she _kept_ breathing, at least. Marinette quickly scanned through her memories of what she had learned in her first aid class. Lila had been acting ill before, so they didn't need to worry about environmental threats to them, too. That also pretty much ruled out choking, and the fact that Lila hadn't been coughing or clutching at her throat (or eating) before confirmed that. She had just passed out, so watching after her while they waited for an ambulance to arrive _should_ be pretty easy.

Now, as far as things that they _could_ do went...

"We want to encourage blood flow to the head, since Lila fainted," Marinette told everyone, keeping a close eye on the slow rise and fall of Lila's chest. "If someone could find something to prop Lila's feet up a bit, that should help. And then I'm just going to make sure that her clothes aren't too tight, because tight clothes restrict blood flow."

Several people darted off to grab their backpacks or bags to prop Lila's feet up. Marinette watched them go for a moment, then turned her attention back to Lila.

Right. _What_ she was meant to do if Lila's clothes _were_ tight, Marinette wasn't sure, but if she could figure out how to defeat an akuma with a traffic cone, she was pretty positive that she could puzzle out how to help Lila.

Methodically, Marinette worked over Lila's body, scanning for anything that might be in need of loosening, pausing briefly partway through to help Nino prop up Lila's feet slightly before going back to her scan. Nothing in particular was sticking out, except for maybe Lila's scarf. Even that was pretty loose, though, not something that would be cutting off any blood or air.

Maybe she should still be removing it? That would probably be a good idea.

"Marinette," Tikki hissed suddenly from Marinette's collar. "I'm sensing something _really_ odd near Lila's neck. Can you take off her scarf? I just- I want to check something out."

Marinette nodded as subtly as she could, not wanting to attract any attention from her audience, then carefully removed Lila's scarf. There was something hard hidden in the folds, and a quick glance down at Tikki confirmed that whatever it was that she had sensed was on the scarf itself.

Had- had she been right? Was Lila actually akumatized and Tikki had detected the akumatized object? Maybe she had been akumatized all week, and that was why she had seemed better. Then the sickness had gotten too much and gotten through the boost that the akuma gave.

Which... well, that made Marinette wonder just _how_ sick Lila was if it was able to force its way through the boost that an akumatization usually gave.

Also, speaking of which, she had to get away _soon_ , then, and purify the akuma before it peeled itself out of whatever was in the scarf. But she couldn't just step away from Lila unnoticed, not when she was the only one of her classmates who was trained in first aid. She would have to wait until the professionals arrived- and even then, she would probably have to brief them on what she had seen and done, even if she had seen the same thing as most of her classmates and hadn't really done much in terms of care.

...maybe she would get lucky and the cursed butterfly would stay in the brooch or whatever it was in the scarf until after Lila was turned over into _far_ more capable hands. It was a long shot, but not _completely_ impossible.

Maybe. Hopefully.

"Here comes the ambulance!" Nathaniel called from the corner of the park. He rushed back towards them. "Clear a path, clear a path!"

The next few minutes were a blur as everyone scrambled out of the way of the path and grabbed up stray bags, making way for the paramedics. They surrounded Lila, taking her vitals and moving her onto a stretcher when she didn't respond. There were questions to answer about what they had seen and what they had done and then Lila was being wheeled away towards the ambulance. The class swarmed towards the curb, watching the ambulance pull away anxiously, but Marinette held back. With everyone else's attention off of her, she glanced down at the scarf in her hands. No corrupted butterflies had fluttered free yet, so Marinette carefully unfolded the scarf to see what was inside.

The folds fell away, tumbling to the side, and the pin inside was exposed. It glinted brightly in the sun, and Marinette gasped.

Because that was no akumatized brooch. That was the Peacock Miraculous.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> woooo Marinette is on the prowl now and Duusu is back in safe hands!
> 
> As always, comments make my day! :)


	7. Marinette: Part 2

Marinette was _really_ glad that the picnic broke up as soon as the ambulance vanished around the corner, because she couldn't get home fast enough.

Was the pin real? It had to be, since otherwise Tikki wouldn't have sensed it. But why on _earth_ would Hawkmoth think that giving _Lila_ a Miraculous would be a good idea?

And how did Lila's strange illness fit into it all?

"I suppose she could just be sick and that part could have nothing to do with Hawkmoth at all," Marinette told Tikki as she dug the Miracle Box out from under her bed. She had to talk to Wayzz _right now_ and see if he could shed any insight on the absolutely astronomical levels of crazy that the past half-hour had been. "But she's been sick for most of the time that Pavona was out and about. Why would Hawkmoth let someone who was sick fight alongside him? If I were him, I would want someone _healthy_ out with me. Whenever I'm sick, I don't do as good of a job fighting. Sneezing and coughing just throws me off and leaves me open to attacks. I mean, maybe he doesn't have any other choice, depending on what happened to Mayura, but _still_."

"Normally I would say that it's probably just a coincidence, but the Peacock's energy seems _off_ again." Tikki was frowning. "I would have thought that Hawkmoth would have fixed the Miraculous once he got his hands on Master Fu's translations, and it certainly _seemed_ like that was the case when Mayura started coming out to battles all the time. I might be wrong, since I'm not the expert, but my guess is that Lila got sick _because_ of the Miraculous."

"I'd just ask- what was it, Duusu? But honestly, if his energy is off, I don't want to charge in headfirst. If _I_ get sick like Lila, then I won't be able to fight as Ladybug." Marinette glanced over the box, then tapped the section for the Turtle. "So I want to talk to Wayzz first. He was the one who was always with Master Fu, so maybe they talked about whatever was going on with the Peacock." There was also the issue of whether it would even be safe to pull Duusu out when she wasn't transformed. If he felt any loyalty to his previous holders- which he might, after being with them for what was really a decent amount of time- then she might be running the risk of him seeing her identity and then escaping and bringing it back to Hawkmoth.

She wanted to believe that that wouldn't happen. That Duusu would be excited about being saved. But she had heard stories about kwamis getting attached to terrible holders before, when their viewpoint got warped around so that they thought their villainous holder was in the right, and as one-half of Paris's superhero team she just couldn't take any chances.

"Hopefully Wayzz and Master Fu discussed the Peacock," Tikki said as Marinette pulled the Turtle out. "If they didn't, we're going to be going in blind."

"Not _completely_ blind. Wayzz is sensitive to what's going on with the other Miraculous and the auras around them. It should help." A green light flashed across the room, and Marinette grinned as Wayzz showed up. "Hey, buddy!"

"Marinette! I sensed a disturbance- a change in the aura around the Peacock- wait! It's close- _very_ close- it's inactive!" Wayzz spun around in a wild circle, then made a beeline to the pile of fabric that was Lila's scarf, digging through it until the Peacock pin was exposed. "You have it! It's here! It's broken, but it's here! Duusu has been saved!"

"So it _is_ broken again," Marinette confirmed. "How would it have gotten like that again? Are the Miraculous really so easy to damage?"

Wayzz shook his head, one paw stroking the Peacock pin as he talked. "Not at all! It's just that when it was fixed last time, it was not fixed correctly. Master Fu saw to that. When he was writing down the translation for that particular spell, he deliberately wrote down one step incorrectly. The spell would appear to fix the Miraculous, and then gradually wear off as time goes by. He did that just in case he lost the translation or it was stolen from him, since he knew that it would make things _very_ difficult for you if the Peacock was fixed for good." Wayzz sighed. "I believe that he thought that the 'repair' would wear off a _whole_ lot sooner, but those sorts of things are hard to control. I suppose it _did_ end up doing what it was meant to, though."

"Eventually, yeah." Marinette grinned, then sobered a little. "Though I honestly would have preferred that it take out Mayura instead of Pavona. Then we would have at least gotten an insight to who Hawkmoth might be. With Lila, though, I just _know_ that the only reason she's connected is because she doesn't like Ladybug."

There was a chance, of course- probably (hopefully) a really good chance- that Duusu would be willing to help and give them clues towards Hawkmoth's (and Mayura's) identity, but clues could only go so far. There were _millions_ of people in Paris and the chance that she and Chat Noir would actually put together the supervillains' identities with only a few clues was pretty low. They could call up the police to help, of course, but even the police didn't know everyone in the city.

"I wonder how much manipulation went into getting Lila to go along with Hawkmoth," Wayzz commented. He raised an eyebrow at Marinette's dubious look. "...if any?"

Marinette shook her head. "I doubt that there was _any_ manipulation. He probably offered up the Miraculous and she took it right away. And I'm _definitely_ not going to let Lila get away with that. She's old enough to know that she shouldn't be working with a supervillain."

"I think even a little kid knows not to work with a supervillain!" Tikki agreed emphatically. "Remember that little kid that got akumatized a month after the attacks started and was _super_ upset about it? He couldn't have been more than six or seven, but he knew that working with a supervillain was a bad thing and wouldn't calm down until you convinced him that being akumatized didn't count as working with Hawkmoth."

Marinette nodded. That had been pretty heartbreaking, actually, and she and Chat Noir had ended up running a whole publicity campaign affirming that akumas weren't responsible for their actions and that they were victims, not villains. No one _chose_ to be akumatized, they had said- which wasn't strictly true, presumably Mayura had allowed herself to get akumatized to create Scarlet Moth and Marinette wouldn't be surprised if Lila had willingly and eagerly accepted a corrupted butterfly (or five) as well- and people shouldn't beat themselves up over it. People should try to avoid getting akumatized or causing akumatizations, of course, but they weren't the villains. Hawkmoth (and Mayura and Pavona, of course, but they hadn't been around at that time) was.

Of course, that was entirely beside the point at the moment. Lila hadn't been akumatized this time around, she had accepted a Miraculous from a supervillain willingly. _That_ was different.

"I can probably say that a classmate of Lila's found the pin on her and alerted me at once," Marinette decided after a moment's pause. "So that's how we found it, and that's how we establish the first connection. Then we add on that the Miraculous has been broken and her symptoms are consistent with the use of a broken Miraculous, so we're positive that it wasn't planted. Or wait, no- I shouldn't mention planting at all, that would be dumb of me. I can just say that that's, uh..."

"Extra confirmation that she was indeed the one holding the Peacock most recently," Wayzz suggested. "Or that that makes it undeniable that she was Pavona, that way you're not suggesting that there was any uncertainty about Pavona's identity once the Peacock came to light."

Marinette jabbed her finger at him. "Yes! I like that. Hang on, I'll write that down. Now, next question- how soon should Chat Noir and I tell Paris about Lila? Right away, or do you think we might be able to catch Hawkmoth off guard if we don't publicize that Lila's identity was discovered?"

Tikki perked up. "Ooh, the second one! I would talk to the police and the hospital right away, though," she added. "To make sure that no news stories run about Lila's collapse. Maybe it's not likely, I don't know, but just in case."

"They probably wouldn't release names for several days anyway, but that's a good idea. The police will understand why we don't want to risk tipping Hawkmoth off, in case he doesn't already know somehow." Marinette pulled out her phone, opening the secure messaging app that she and Chat Noir used and shooting her partner a message. She wanted to let him know what was going on as soon as possible. If they could both be there when Duusu came out, that would be great. As she sent it, another thought hit her. "Wayzz, will it be dangerous for us to pull Duusu out considering that his Miraculous is broken? Will it affect us like it affected Lila?"

Wayzz shook his head. "It shouldn't. Lila got to the stage that she's now at by repetitive use of the Miraculous. _Heavy_ repetitive use, and recent, from what I'm sensing around Duusu's aura. Which is odd, considering that Hawkmoth hasn't been active today...or this week at all."

Marinette gasped, stabbing one finger into the air as a revelation hit her. " _That's_ how Lila got the photos! Today she had pictures of herself with all sorts of famous people, _including_ Ladybug," she added to Wayzz when he looked confused. "To make her stories seem more true. I figured that she had just been using Photoshop, but I bet _all_ of those celebrities were actually sentimonsters plus a poster behind her."

"Somehow, I am not surprised." Wayzz let out a long sigh. "Fitting that that would be her downfall, really. She must have used the Peacock's powers a number of times in a _very_ short timeframe to become as ill as she did at the end. You will simply be pulling Duusu out and not transforming or using his powers, which means that the broken magic from the Miraculous won't affect you at all."

"Good." Marinette let out a long breath- _that_ was a load off of her shoulders- and then checked her phone as it buzzed. "Chat Noir is available now. I'm telling him to go to Master Fu's old parlor- Hawkmoth never found that, so it should be private and safe enough. We can pull Duusu out there, so both of us can talk to him at once." She slipped the Turtle bracelet onto her wrist. "Is there anything I should be bringing along other than the Miraculous, Wayzz?"

"Some fruit, if you have some to spare!" Wayzz told her. "Duusu loves fruit, and I'm sure that the lying girl didn't give him enough. She seems the sort to only give the bare minimum and then snap when asked for anything more, which- ironically- would have just sped up the rate at which she was affected by the Miraculous being broken. You don't have to take a ton, but a snack would be nice."

Marinette nodded, already headed for her trapdoor. "That's easy enough. We always have fruit sitting out for snacks. No one is going to think anything of it if an apple and a couple of bananas go missing, that's what they're there for."

It took almost no time at all to grab the fruit, gather up the pin (and the scarf) and then hightail her way over to Master Fu's old shop. Going in felt a little odd- she had to slip in a back window as Ladybug instead of going in the front door as Marinette, and the shop had a distinctly abandoned feel to it instead of feeling like a _home-_ but it was the best place they had to work out of. Chat Noir was already there, waiting anxiously in what used to be the living room.

"What's going on?" Chat Noir wanted to know as soon as she came in. "You said it was urgent? There's not some sort of invisible akuma or something, is there?"

"No, no akuma," Ladybug told him, pulling a pillow and a box that sometimes served as a sort of table over next to him. "There was an, ah, _incident_ at one of the local parks not very long ago. Lila Rossi- you know, the liar girl- she passed out and fainted. And when Marinette was checking her over, she found... _this_." Ladybug reached out, depositing the Peacock on their box-table. Chat Noir's eyes went wide. "And Tikki and Wayzz have confirmed that it's the real thing."

"No _way!_ That's- but how was _Lila_ \- I mean, I guess it makes sense considering how Pavona acted, she always seemed to think that she was more of a threat than she actually was. But- _wow_." Chat Noir let out a long breath, still staring at the Peacock. "How lucky is it that she just happened to be sick and passed out right then? Now Hawkmoth is down an ally, and maybe we'll get some sort of lead."

"It's not _entirely_ luck, really." Ladybug tapped the Miraculous. "You remember how we thought that it was broken before, right? And that Hawkmoth fixed it? Wayzz said that Master Fu didn't write down the correct translation of the spell. He altered one step so that it would look fixed and feel fixed for a short while and then wear off. So the Miraculous has been making Lila sick, and then she used it a bunch- that's what we're assuming, at least- to fake some photos with famous people, and that was enough to push her over the edge into- well, she hadn't woken up yet from what I heard, so who knows? Maybe she's in a coma."

"Oof, that's- well, honestly, that's well-deserved." Chat Noir let out another breath. "It's a good thing that we found that out with the supervillains, at least. Imagine if we had gotten the Peacock back somehow and tried to fix it ourselves! That could have been really dangerous."

"I wouldn't have done anything to it without consulting _all_ of the kwamis first," Ladybug told him. "And then I would have made sure to have Wayzz keep an eye on it, since he's best with the auras. I wouldn't feel confident enough to fix a Miraculous myself without supervision to actually use it afterwards without triple- and quadruple-checking to make sure that things actually went the way they were meant to. And- and Master Fu would have known that."

Chat Noir nodded. "That makes me feel better. I'd be pretty lost if _you_ got sick and then vanished off of the face of the earth."

"I'd stop _way_ before getting to the coma stage, believe me. One cough, and that Miraculous would be retired to a corner until I could contact the Order." Ladybug took a deep breath, her eyes returning to the Miraculous. "I haven't talked to Duusu yet. I didn't think it would be safe to at home, and it made more sense than interviewing him by myself and then trying to remember everything to pass it along to you. Besides, if Duusu gives us a lead to who Hawkmoth is, we should both be here."

"Ooh, fingers crossed that we get a good lead." Chat Noir settled down, shifting anxiously on his heels. "Ready to talk to him now?"

Yeah." Ladybug gave herself a shake, then straightened and turned her attention fully to the Miraculous, focusing on pulling Duusu out without actually _touching_ the Miraculous. It took a minute, but then the Miraculous lit up with blue light. It glowed for a long moment, and then a blue bubble popped free. It glowed brighter and brighter, and then burst. Duusu yawned widely, then blinked blearily over at them. After a moment, his eyes widened and he shot up in the air.

"Oh, thank _goodness!_ " Duusu exclaimed. "I've been saved! You would not _believe_ the terrible people that I've had to put up with, it was awful!"

* * *

As it turned out, Duusu was an absolute gold mine of information. Maybe he couldn't say the names of his former captors, but he could certainly talk and talk (and talk some more) on about them until there was absolutely no doubt in Ladybug and Chat Noir's minds about who Hawkmoth and Mayura were.

And then Duusu _kept_ talking, on and on and on. He complained about Lila ("Such a little brat, and so full of herself!") and about Mayura ("I don't know why she's going after a married man, he's hardly a looker or kind or a good dad or _anything,_ no redeeming qualities at all!") and about another, previous holder, who apparently had been kind, if perhaps a little manipulative sometimes, and who was currently in some sort of cursed coma related to her use of the Miraculous in Hawkmoth's sub-basement lair.

Ladybug had to roll her eyes at _sub-basement lair_. What kind of unnecessarily dramatic (and rich) villain needed _two_ lairs in the same building? It was absolutely excessive and ridiculous.

"Okay, so Hawkmoth is Gabriel Agreste, Mayura is Nathalie Sancoeur, and Emilie Agreste isn't missing, but a former Peacock and is hidden under the house," Chat Noir summed up once Duusu _finally_ stopped talking for a minute in favor of inhaling some of the fruit that Ladybug had brought along. Her partner looked more than a little shaken, his face so pale behind the mask that Ladybug was starting to wonder if she would have to call for _another_ ambulance. "Uh, is there any way to- to get her _out_ of the coma? To heal her, I mean?"

"Once my Miraculous is properly fixed, the energy that I sapped from my users should slowly return," Duusu told them. "Well, as long as the they have my Miraculous on them. It won't work without that contact. They might need a little medical attention and maybe a boost from a potion or two to get the process really going, but unless the damage runs deeper than I can sense, it should be a pretty straightforward process to fix everything!"

Ladybug nodded, part of her mind already combing through the potions and spells that she and Chat Noir had gone through together. There were a couple that might be of some use, though she would want to do a bit more digging through things and consulting with the kwamis before she gave anyone any potions.

There was also, of course, the question of how they were meant to heal Lila- and possibly Nathalie as well, depending on how she was doing- without running the risk of them taking the Miraculous and running with it. Handcuffs and 24-7 supervision could only go so far when magic was involved.

The other part of her mind was- well, it was mulling over the discovery of the supervillains' identities. After all, that was what she and Chat Noir had wanted to learn for _months_ now.

She wasn't as surprised as she thought she would be, really.

Part of it was the fact that she had suspected Mr. Agreste before. He had had the Miracle Book and had a butterfly as his brand's logo. He had a motive with his missing wife. He had the money and job security needed to vanish for hours on end to somewhere secluded and safe to unleash his akumas on the world. And, to top it off, he wasn't a very nice person. It was pretty easy to imagine that he would think that the rules didn't apply to him and that causing other people suffering and fear and distress was just a minor inconvenience that could easily be ignored.

And then the other part... well, both she and Adrien had commented on how odd it was that Lila, Nathalie, and Mrs. Agreste had all come down with the same symptoms at separate times. Once Lila collapsed and Marinette found out that she had been Pavona and the Peacock Miraculous had been what had caused the odd illness, that _oddness_ had been nagging her from the back of her mind, begging to be noticed.

Marinette hadn't paid it as much attention as she might have otherwise because there had been a _lot_ going on that had _also_ needed her attention, but if she had had a couple minutes to give it a proper think over, she probably would have come to the same conclusion that she had now. With that one piece of the puzzle it would have all snapped into place anyway, even without Duusu's helpful comments. He had just sped the process along and ensured that they were absolutely 100% positive about the supervillains' identities.

"I guess the most pressing question now- well, other than how to fix the Miraculous- is how to deal with defeating Hawkmoth and then approaching all of the stuff with Lila," Chat Noir said hesitantly after a few moments had passed. "Mr. Agreste is out of town at the moment, I've heard, though he's coming back- er, tomorrow, potentially? At least that's what I've heard."

Ladybug blinked at that, puzzled, before giving herself a shake to refocus. How and _why_ Chat Noir knew Mr. Agreste's schedule off of the top of his head was anyone's guess, but it also wasn't immediately important. If she remembered, maybe she could ask him about it later. "I got to talk to Tikki and Wayzz about that before coming here, actually. We thought it would be a good idea to go to the police and catch them up on what is going on, and then they could restrict what information gets released so that we don't tip Hawkmoth off about Lila collapsing and us getting the Peacock back ahead of time."

"And should we tell them about who Hawkmoth and Mayura are, or just Lila's identity?"

Ladybug let out a long breath. Honestly, she wanted to talk to Tikki about that to _really_ feel good about her decision. After all, she was just a teenager with experience fighting akumas and pretty much all she had talked about with Master Fu was in regard to their battles, not what she should do once they had figured out who Hawkmoth was. "I mean...maybe? I don't- I don't know if I want to risk them trying to take over now, but I'm coming up a bit blank on ideas."

"Right." Chat Noir leaned back on his pillow, clearly deep in thought. "Well, if we want to surprise Hawkmoth- Mr. Agreste- then we want to get him before he has the chance to find out about Lila. So I think we should find out when he's going to be back for sure, and catch him coming off of the plane."

"Hopefully Mrs. Rossi hasn't contacted him already." Presumably she wouldn't have- after all, with Lila likely in a coma, Mrs. Rossi was probably too overwhelmed to think of doing anything like contacting Lila's employer- but it never hurt to shut down those possibilities before their advantage could get spoiled.

...honestly, it was a bit questionable as to if Mrs. Rossi knew about Lila's modeling at all. Somehow Ladybug doubted it.

Chat Noir frowned. "I hadn't considered that. But assuming that she hasn't yet, maybe we could ask the police to ask her not to spread any news about Lila? Then Mr. Agreste would come back unprepared, and we could catch him and Na- er, Mayura at the airport. If he tries transforming there, everyone will see him and he'll know it."

"If he knows that we already know, it might not matter," Ladybug pointed out, but she could see his point. "I think that's a good idea."

"If it helps, Mrs. Rossi doesn't know about Lila's modeling!" Duusu chirped helpfully, finally emerging from the slowly shrinking pile of fruit. "It was all a secret! I'm not sure if she would have allowed it or not if she _had_ known, but Lila didn't really tell her mom anything. She can't stop it if she doesn't know about it, right?"

"I feel like Lila took that approach with most things," Ladybug sighed. She looked over at Chat Noir. "I feel like we probably thought about everything. Ready to go talk to the police?"

"In a minute?" Chat Noir had curled up on himself, his eyes on Duusu. "I'm just... I know we have to work fast, but everything is still sinking in. I just can't believe that everything is coming together and finishing so quickly."

Ladybug nodded, re-settling on her cushion. Honestly, they could use a few extra minutes before they headed out, just to decide what they wanted to say. "I know what you mean. I never imagined that we would learn Hawkmoth's identity this way. It feels _really_ strange to be _planning_ his defeat instead of just beating him during a battle."

"Mm-hmm." Chat Noir had a rather funny look on his face. "...yeah. But I- I'm glad that we _did_ find out this way, instead of during a battle. Now we can, uh, prepare."

"Exactly!" Ladybug smiled over at him. There was a fair amount of trepidation creeping in- now that the shock was starting to recede, there were a whole lot of possible problems and things to consider that were threatening to overwhelm her. The takedown wouldn't be terribly complicated, but how they wanted to deal with the fallout, and getting Duusu help, and what should or shouldn't become public, and- and-

But that could all wait. Right now, there was finally- _finally_ \- an end to all of the endless battles in sight, and she wanted to focus on that.

* * *

Gabriel Agreste was pleasantly surprised when he woke up on the last day of his business trip to a continued lack of news about any sort of superhero-supervillain activity in Paris.

If he was being entirely honest, he hadn't been completely positive that Lila would follow his instructions to not go out with the Peacock, even with his threats. Her ego was big enough to fill a mansion, and she had proven time and time again during her time as Pavona that she thought that her strategic planning was eons better than anyone else's, even though that was nowhere close to being true. He had had to whack her and her ego back down to make her into an even _remotely_ competent partner, and he had worried that she would just bounce back and act out again without him there to issue corrections immediately.

Perhaps he would have had a more restful week had he collected the Miraculous from her before heading out on his trip and simply returned it afterwards, but his worries about if Lila would disregard his orders hadn't really surfaced until it was _far_ too late to do anything about it.

"I do wonder how we should approach using the- the bird," Gabriel murmured to Nathalie, letting his voice drop into a whisper so that none of the other passengers in first class would overhear. "Like how much longer we should allow the girl to use it. We're not going to get any closer to the jewels with her assistance, but you seem to be feeling better now that you've had a break from using the pe- using the bird."

"I'm inclined to believe that my illness was a coincidence, given the fact that Ms. Rossi has not complained about feeling sick despite the rigorous pace you've set," Nathalie told him. "And I've been thinking about my return as well, and came up with a potential approach. If you bring her back out onto the battlefield for a couple of fights- let me _finish_ , Gabriel, do not interrupt- and then reclaim the- the bird. I will use it and look just like _her_ , atrocious outfit and all, and then we can take _them_ off guard. They will be expecting a weak opponent and an easy monster and instead, come face-to-face with- well, _me_."

Gabriel _hmmm_ ed, stroking his chin. "Ah, yes. I like that idea. You might have to tr- to use her form before," he added, glancing around to make sure that no one was listening in. Thankfully, it seemed as though everyone in the rows around them either had headphones on or was asleep. "To get used to the difference in height and the, ah, _outfit_." He had to shudder at the thought. Pavona's outfit was one of the most garish and tasteless things that he had ever seen. Frankly, it was a bit concerning that Lila was spending so much time around fashion and had still managed to come up with _that_. "Speaking of Ms. Rossi and her health, I think it might be prudent to call her up for a shoot before you return, just so that we can see her in person and ensure that she isn't hiding an illness."

Nathalie tapped at her tablet. "Of course, sir. How soon should the shoot be?"

"After several attacks. She _has_ gotten some time off from them, after all." Gabriel tapped his fingers against the arm of his chair, a sharp staccato as he thought. "Let's allow for three or four in quick succession. That way, if she has any symptoms, they should be at a detectable level."

"A solid plan, sir."

Gabriel only nodded in acknowledgement.

The remainder of their flight passed quickly. Gabriel sipped away at the wine that he had bought earlier in the flight- enough to take the edge off of the mind-numbing dullness of travel, not so much that he would appear remotely incapacitated once he had to get off the plane- and sketched while Nathalie took advantage of the airplane Wi-Fi to take care of her emails and plan out both his and Adrien's schedules for the next two weeks.

It wouldn't do to return behind schedule, after all. There was a lot of work that went into running a company like _Gabriel_ , and it was getting harder and harder to fit everything in around their increased number of akumatizations without anyone noticing. Every spare minute had to used wisely.

Hopefully everything would be sorted out soon. With Nathalie's suggested plan, Gabriel figured that they should have the Miraculous in their hands by the end of the following week. Then they would have Emilie back, so there would be no need to continue the time-consuming akuma attacks, and she would be able to help both him and Nathalie with their work. They could get caught up, and then Gabriel would be able to expand several of the fashion lines and use his extra time to continue growing the business into a few new countries.

Emilie would probably insist on them going to a few of Adrien's fencing tournaments or basketball games or something, but Gabriel could always bring along his tablet so that he could continue working and wouldn't be wasting so much time on such frivolities.

"We got an email from Adrien's school yesterday afternoon," Nathalie commented as the plane started its descent, swiping at something on her tablet and then setting it aside as the announcement to put electronics away came over the intercom. "I hadn't looked at it before, since it wasn't marked as urgent, but it sounds like there was some sort of incident during one of their class outings. It doesn't go into details, but I suppose we should ask Adrien about it."

"I imagine that it's just some schoolyard drama, but yes, I suppose." There was, of course, the off chance that something moderately interesting had happened, but based on prior emails the school had sent out, it was _far_ more likely that someone had tripped and scraped their knee and then someone else had felt faint at the sight of the blood or something ridiculous like that. "I do wish that the school was a bit more discriminating about what they bother parents about. If I wanted to know about every inconsequential detail about what is going on at school, I would ask Adrien."

Nathalie nodded. "Precisely. I suppose that they had to deal with complaints from overly-involved parents who wanted to know every detail about what their kids were doing and that's why they felt the need to send something out- and for something that didn't even happen on school grounds or during school hours, either."

"Ridiculous."

Nathalie nodded, and they fell silent as the plane finished its descent and landed. As soon as they were stopped at the gate, Nathalie was up and pulling their carry-ons down from overhead. They were almost the first people off, striding up the jetway towards the airport. It would mean a longer wait for their luggage, but Gabriel _much_ preferred that over sitting in the plane for any longer.

"Do you think that you'll be checking in on Ms. Rossi tonight?" Nathalie asked. "To update her on the plan?"

Gabriel shook his head. "No, for several reasons. Since she's Adrien's classmate, she's likely to be aware that _I_ was gone as well, and she's likely find out that I returned today. That's the problem with us including her at all. She's too high-maintenance and spoiled. I worry that if I tell her that I'm going to be taking the pin back ahead of time, she'll try to stab me in the back and run off with it. I'll give the attacks a break for another day or two, _then_ do an attack and visit her afterwards. I think that would be best."

"And then when you want to take the pin back, just do it the day of," Nathalie agreed as they stepped into the airport. "Wise choice. I'm looking forward to not having to deal with her anymore. Or, well, not having to deal with her on _that_ side of our lives. I suppose she still serves a purpose as a spy at the school."

Gabriel sighed. Honestly, he would rather not have to deal with such an unpleasant child, but she _was_ a mildly useful tool. "Yes, at least for a while longer. As soon as we get-" he lowered his voice "-the Miraculous, then we can drop her like a hot potato. She's a pain in the rear at photoshoots, she's been holding up the entire proce-"

He never got to finish his sentence. Out of nowhere, Nathalie got sent flying as a black pole slammed into her back, and Gabriel found himself hog-tied and dragged sideways abruptly, with no chance to defend himself. His face hit the floor with a _smack_ and his nose started stinging as he was yanked across the cheap airport carpet, fibers and dirt and stray tiny stones scraping across his skin. The sensation- along with the tearing noise that was almost definitely coming from either his jacket or his pants or both- was a distant concern, though, behind the absolute panic that was welling up in Gabriel. He thrashed frantically, trying to catch sight of who had roped him, but there were too many people around. There were shouts of surprise and panic from the crowds as people started running away, tripping over luggage and other people as they did.

Gabriel was yanked across another few meters of carpet before coming to an abrupt stop, still face-down on the carpet. There was something uncomfortably sticky across his cheek, and now-

Now there was definitely a foot pressing down on his back, holding him down. It didn't _feel_ that big, so Gabriel tried to thrash.

The foot pressed down harder, clearly stronger than its small size indicated.

"Look at what came off!" a male voice called, and Gabriel twisted his head just enough to see Carapace straightening up, a scrap of fabric in hand. Just a little further back- where smooth floor switched to rough carpet- Gabriel's red and white-striped clip-on ascot lay on the floor, having apparently popped off-

-wait. _Carapace?_

No. No no no no no no _no-_

"One butterfly-themed brooch!" Carapace announced, waving the scrap of cloth around. "That was easy!"

"Nice!" a female voice cheered, and Gabriel's eyes shot over to where Rena Rouge and Chat Noir were handcuffing Nathalie, who... well, it looked like she might have been thrown into the coffee shop area when she was initially hit by what must have been Chat Noir's baton. "No last-ditch transformation attempts!"

"What-" Gabriel croaked, his mind spinning as he tried to piece together what was going on. It _sounded_ like they knew that he was Hawkmoth and Nathalie was Mayura, but how was that even _possible?_ They had been careful! They had made sure to not go in and out of the mansion from as Hawkmoth and Mayura- well, at least not from any visible entrances or ones that could be connected to the mansion- and they had never been unmasked in front of anyone. They made to detransform in hidden spots that didn't have any cameras, if they decided to detransform somewhere that wasn't in the mansion. "No, I'd like that back, it- it has a picture of my wife in it, it's very special to me-"

Carapace snorted. "Yeah, I _bet_ it's special to you, Mr. Supervillain."

"Welcome back to Paris," Ladybug said cheerfully from where she stood on top of him, her friendly smile a little too wide, a little too toothy, just on the edge of dangerous. "By the way, you're under arrest."

* * *

Paris flew into an uproar as soon as the news of Hawkmoth's defeat reached the public, shock and joy filling the streets. The police wasted no time in releasing the official story that Ladybug and Chat Noir had fed them, which was that a classmate found the Peacock Miraculous on the civilian Pavona while administering first aid following Pavona's collapse. She had grabbed it to give to Ladybug and from there, the superheroes had been able to piece together the clues that led them to Mr. Agreste and Ms. Sancoeur.

Hawkmoth and Mayura's identities had been known as soon as the arrest was made, of course. People in the airport had seen the superheroes making an arrest and waving a pin around, and it was easy enough to put two and two together. The police had initially declined to confirm the reason for the arrest, but it hadn't been long before it was obvious that no one was buying it.

The public then turned to the next question: Gabriel Agreste was Hawkmoth and Nathalie Sancoeur was Mayura, but who was Pavona? Perhaps she hadn't been on the battlefield as much as Hawkmoth or Mayura, or for as long, and really she had been more or a minor annoyance for the superheroes (and a source of amusement for the rest of Paris, who rather enjoyed seeing the supervillain constantly getting beaten up), but she _had_ joined the supervillains and needed to face the consequences.

This time, the police declined to release any names right away. They might have confirmed- with Duusu's help and with the recording of Hawkmoth recruiting Lila that they had found at the Agreste mansion- that Lila's participation was 100% voluntary, but since Lila was underage, they wanted to be more careful.

Needless to say, the superheroes were _not_ thrilled about that, particularly once Lila's estranged father appeared and looked like he might be moving to use his connections- connections that _did_ exist, unlike the ones that Lila claimed- to keep Lila's involvement on the down-low. She would still go to jail- no _connections_ could make the evidence go away- but no one would _know_. Everyone in her class- in the whole school, really- would remember her as the super-cool, super-nice student who was going to save the world, only to be suddenly felled by an illness and then vanish.

Lila didn't deserve that. She had been a supervillain by _choice_ , and that made her fake everyday-superhero persona an insult to everyone who actually dedicated their lives to helping others.

And so the superheroes tipped the scales, so to speak. All it took was them mentioning in the ex-supervillains' hearing range _why_ Lila had taken ill so suddenly and intensely that she had collapsed and spilled the beans. Gabriel Agreste had been so thoroughly infuriated about the fact that Lila had gotten sick from her own entirely selfish use of the Miraculous instead of just by using the Peacock for _his_ cause that he had told reporters who Pavona had been himself during a press conference several weeks after his arrest.

Once upon a time Adrien might have felt a little bad about manipulating his father to do his dirty work for him, but not anymore. After all, Lila deserved to be exposed, and Mr. Agreste _really_ couldn't get in any more trouble than he was already in.

Besides, Mr. Agreste had made Adrien put up with Lila during photoshoots and study sessions that Adrien had objected to, so if he looked at it that way, his father _owed_ it to him to ensure that Adrien wouldn't have to listen to his classmates gushing about and worrying over Lila for who-knew-how-long going forward.

As was to be expected, the truthfulness of the story was questioned when it first broke, but it didn't take people long to figure out that there was no _point_ in Mr. Agreste lying. In fact, since his identity had been figured out due to Pavona's collapse, he was bound to be pretty motivated to take her down with him.

Besides, Lila had, in fact, passed out at a park and was still in the hospital. All of the details fit, and Paris was convinced.

After that, it wasn't long before the police confirmed Pavona's identity. Lila's father had raged, but at that point, there was no point in denying it any longer. Everyone knew the truth, and it wasn't long before all of Lila's _other_ lies came to light, too.

Lila's reputation was in the trash and- well, no one could say that it wasn't _very_ well deserved.

"Well, at least one good thing came out of Lila being here," Adrien commented as he and Marinette watched the latest news coverage on the upcoming supervillain trials in her family's apartment. Ever since they revealed their identities to each other, they had been practically attached at the hip as Adrien came to terms with his father's betrayal and anxiously waited for news about his mother's condition. It had been hard at first, but now that Mrs. Agreste was definitely on the mend- as the only _non_ -villainous Peacock holder, it had been a unanimous decision to let her use the Miraculous to heal first while they figured out security measures for healing Lila and possibly Nathalie- he had been _much_ more cheerful. "After all, she sort of caused Hawkmoth's downfall, even if it was sort of indirectly and very much by accident."

Marinette giggled, curling closer to his side. "Ooh, imagine her face when she realizes that. She joined Hawkmoth to try to cause _my_ downfall, and it completely backfired on her."

"D'you think it would be rude if we sent her a thank-you card as superheroes once she finally gets healed?" Adrien mused, and then immediately shook his head. "No, never mind, that would be rubbing it in. Not a very good look for superheroes."

"I think that there will be plenty of people reminding her of that without us chiming in." Onscreen, the news gave way to a commercial break and Marinette muted the TV so that they didn't have to listen before turning all of her attention to Adrien. "I'm glad that everything worked out in the end, at least. It'll be nice to have our class go back to normal."

"It will be," Adrien agreed. He smiled over at Marinette, reaching over to take her hands. "Though I wouldn't mind there being a _few_ changes to our old normal, Buginette."

Marinette's answering smile was shy. "Oh? I don't suppose the changes that you're thinking of _just_ have to do with the fact that we won't be skipping class all of the time to fight akumas?"

"That'll be a bonus, sure, but it wasn't what I was thinking of." Adrien flashed a smile at her before his eyes dropped down to their joined hands. "My Lady, I was wondering- well, you know that I like you and, uh, I was kind of maybe getting the impression that, uh..."

Marinette couldn't hold back her grin as her poor kitty floundered. She let him try to recover for another second or two, then leaned forward and cut him off with a kiss. Adrien startled, then immediately melted into the kiss, his smile so wide that she could feel it.

The last couple of weeks had been tough, what with Adrien's father getting arrested and then immediately having to deal with getting the Peacock fixed so that they could start healing Mrs. Agreste (and eventually Lila), but they were past the worst of it now. Now they could start moving on and settle in to a new normal.

And honestly, neither of them could wait.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was meant to be the last chapter, but I ended up writing a bit of Lila POV after she woke up, so there will be one more chapter after this.
> 
> As always, comments make my day! :)


End file.
